Look What Miss Can Do

I was asked the other day if Missy high-fived, since I'm big into throwing down the fivers as people walk passed. The short answer is no. The long answer is she doesn't like her paws touched in general. She's really weird about it. She will shake if there is a treat involved, but Miss is a treat whore and there really isn't a whole lot she won't do for a treat.

Now Missaroo should know how to do more tricks after the hundreds of dollars I've spent on training but that's not the case. We were amazing students when it came to beginner class. Missy was the first dog to learn whatever the day's lesson was and then we would practice everyday, throughout the day. We fell off a bit when it came to intermediate class and that's where a lot of the actual "tricks" were taught.

The trick Missy does best is sit. She learned very early on that sitting equaled treat. In fact when she first learned to sit she became that kid that just learned about the word please. She would look at me as if to say, but mom I'm sitting, where's the treat. To this day, when the closet opens up and she hears the treat box rustling around she runs up and parks it and then licks her lips. When we check out at Petsmart, she runs behind the counter and sits. The cashier asks me if she can have a treat and I always answer the same way, "Of course, that's why she's sitting like that." What can I say? Missaroo is pretty good at equating positive things like that.

Other than that, she can shake like I mentioned, she can wait ((is that really a trick?)) and she has rolled over maybe three times. Two of those times didn't come easy and required a threat. The third time was all on her own in the middle of the KREM newsroom. There were a bunch of guys standing around meeting her for the first time and she turned on the Missaroo charm and rolled over! I couldn't believe it, but seriously she might love the men more than I do. She can also crawl. Sounds weird, and ((surprise)) requires a treat but she will shimmy across the floor.

But I think Missaroo's greatest trick is that she can put on a backpack, or maybe that's mine. When we were on the brink of homelessness and almost had to move back to Illinois I told my family I was going to train Missaroo for the dog agility games on ESPN. My brother asked how I would ever get my dog to go through weave polls and I told him, "Hey my dog puts on a backpack, if I can get her to do that I can get her to weave"

So what can Miss do? Anything that involves a treat.