Who's training whom?

I think the homemade dog biscuits might have been a mistake. Oh, they turned out great, and there are a lot of them. Or, there were a lot of them. I've given away several dozens of them, but Ruby's certainly put a dent in the supply. She can tell when I have them in my pocket, on account of they are more deliciously fragrant than other dog biscuits. And there are still about 500 biscuits' worth of dough in the freezer, as I got tired of rolling it out and cutting them out. The recipe I used made a lot more biscuits than I expected, and in fact made a quantity too large for my new mixer to handle. I'll have to work on it a bit before I post it here.

On the up side, she has been very responsive to my training efforts lately. She will come when called most of the time, even when she is trying to track down a squirrel, or digging around near the potting shed where I'm pretty sure there are mice. She'll sit and stay for upwards of five seconds (which is a giant leap from previous attempts), and she'll even stay when I step away or turn my back briefly. And she's got the 'down' command pretty well, although 'down-stay' remains at around 50 percent.

But she's started to perform in hopes of a treat, without waiting for a command. She'll just show up at my side and sit. If I happen to walk near the fridge -- which is where the treats are, up on top where she can't reach them -- she trots over and sits. And when I don't respond in the way she'd like, she first wags her tail and looks adorable. When that fails, and I walk away, she tries to get my attention, first by getting in my way, then by barking. Or she'll go into the hallway where her bed is, and leap onto it and assume the 'down' position, which is what she has to do when I leave the house. 'On your bed,' is what I say to her, and I give her a treat. But I'm not gonna give her a damn treat every single time she gets into her bed.

She's also started stringing commands together in creative but plausible ways. 'Off the fence,' which has been pretty difficult but she's definitely improving, has come to mean, 'off the fence' + 'come over here' + 'sit' all at once. Her annoyance when I fail to reward her is kind of funny, but getting old fast.

And sometimes when I sit down at the computer in the morning, she comes right over and sticks her nose in my bathrobe pocket, just to make sure there are no treats. And if there are treats in there, she'll keep pestering me until I finally make her do a down-stay.

At which point, this morning, I gave her the treat already.

Yes, I'm responding very well to her training efforts.