We’ve Mastered This Yes Thing

Ya know I was kind of skeptical about this “Yes” thing but it’s true, after about four days of constant “Yes”, Skeeter made it very clear that she understood “Yes” meant TREAT. (Virginia asked, in comments last week, how you know she understands “Yes” — you know because any time you say “Yes” the dog’s ears perk up or she pays close attention to you.)

And yep, Skeeter understands very well that any time someone says “Yes” she is supposed to get a treat. (You can see a tiny little video of that here. She was playing with a toy at my feet and you’ll see her look up right away when I say “Yes”.)

In tonight’s class, the trainer was demonstrating basic things that he wanted us to do with our dogs: Have the dog follow your hand back and forth, say “Yes” and present the treat. Get your dog to sit, say “Yes” and give the dog a treat. Work toward getting the dog to lay down, say “Yes” and give the dog a treat. The trainer demonstrated these things over and over again and he said “Yes” constantly, to another dog. Skeeter looked at me for her treat every single time the guy said “Yes”. The entire room was very impressed by her skill at the “Yes”, (as they should have been because she was the best at this skill.)

I wasn’t sure she would really pay attention to my “Yes” if there was a room full of dogs and a room full of treats in other people’s hands but she did a great job. As long as I was keeping her attention, keeping her moving, keeping her focused, she was ready to do what I wanted for the “Yes”/treat.

This week, we’re supposed to keep doing the “Yes” (not saying commands, which is hard because we’ve been doing basic commands since day one so… yea, we’re probably going to keep saying them as well as the darn “Yes”) and keep practicing the follow your hand for treats, sit for treats, lay down for treats.

Easy peasy.

Skeeter is awesomely smart. (And cute.) Even if she did eat her sixth leash today, when I turned my back for three damn minutes.