Puppy Tales: Teaching New Tricks to an Old Dog

The newest addition to our family may be puppy sized, but she's 10 years old. Too old to be learning new tricks, right?

That doesn't deter my husband. He was determined that Zoe should learn to love to swim, just like the big dogs. And she did.

 Look at the smile!!

And yes, she did go back in on her own. She wasn't just swimming because he forced the issue, or rather, she was the first time, but then she was in and out of the lake as much as the big dogs were!

And then, of course, there's my husband's favorite trick. The "Wait" command. Our big dogs are very familiar with this trick, but Zoe and both of my mother-in-law's dogs took a few attempts to get it right. Husband is patient. Dogs learn. Everyone is happy in the end.

Happy, that is, when it's over. In the mean time, the poor big dogs had to wait. And wait. And wait, until everyone was sitting and staying and waiting the "right" way. I'm not sure this photo captures the sheer amount of drool expended in the waiting time, but believe me it was a prodigious amount...

But yes, everyone is happy in the end.