My dogs are stupid, I think I have mentioned that a few times. They are both lovable and cute but seriously lacking in intelligence. They also bark. In our old house we were on the corner lot. This gave the dogs plenty of opportunity to bark and everyone walking by. I had a neighbor who did not like to hear the dogs bark. I don’t blame her but most of the time it wasn’t my dogs barking. Yeah right. She would call or stop by and complain about the dogs. It didn’t help that her son was the child on the block who was the tattletale. All the other kids either stayed away from him or picked on him. She often complained about my son along with the dogs. Every block has one of these people.

Because I did not want her calling me or coming over I would become very nervous when I let the dogs out. I would hurry them in as soon as possible. I felt bad for the dogs since they wanted to be outside so I got in the habit of shaking the dog treats box at the door and they would come running. I realize the dogs have me trained. And I have tried other methods that are somewhat torurous but they didn’t seem to work. I tried a barking collar, a shock collar, that shocked the bassador every time he barked. It had no effect on him at all. He didn’t flinch. I know it worked because my son tried it on his friend. He flinched. A lot.

Anyway, when I moved to this house I was worried the dogs would bark and piss off my neighbors. Both neighbors on either side have a dog and they both bark occasionally. Both neighbors have told me they are not the least bit upset about the occasional barking and we all tell each others dogs to shut up. The feeling is in this neighborhood that if the dogs bark occasionally none of us are in danger of being robbed or burglarized. I have really cool neighbors. I still shake the treat box to get them in however. Habit I guess. I do make them do the only trick they know to receive the treats. They can both sit. Nothing else but sit.

I shook the box and the little one came in immediately, she always comes in when I call her it’s the other one that doesn’t. The little one is a cocker spaniel. I thought these dogs were supposed to be good hunting/flushing kinds of dogs. All dogs are supposed to have a great sense of smell, though neither one of them seem to be aware of the stench they make, I threw the treat for the cocker and then let the other one in and gave him a treat. Meanwhile the cocker is searching for her treat, she can’t find it even though it is literally right in front of her. Evidently they aren’t so good at seeing things on an oriental rug.