Walter's here

The finder

I am going to make a serious effort not to post too many pictures or incidents in our life together, but the first day gets a little attention.  We are training each other, or at least I am learning to read him and we have either had a happy coincidence or he has already picked up on one of the things I thought it would be most difficult to teach him.

I bought a string of bells that you hang from the doorknob where the dog goes out.  Then you train him to ring those bells with his nose when he wants to go.  A few times when we went out, I held his muzzle and moved it just enough the ring the bells, then opened the door immediately to let him out.  At 2 p.m. today, just about seven awake hours into our first day, he went over to the door, yelped once and then rang the bell.  I jumped to open the door quickly so he would get a response and out he went, and took care of some serious bathroom issues.  We'll see if it happens again.

DAY TWO, bit of an update:  I shouldn't have worried, this dog is smart.  Twice today I saw him sitting patiently by the rope of bells on the door waiting to go out.  While I was eating dinner, I heard the bells ring and sure enough there he was, waiting to go out, and when he did is was serious and fast.  Sort of a reverse Pavlov around here.  You have to wonder who's training whom.

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