Babysitting the grand-dog and becoming well-trained, too

Hi neighbors.

For the last week my son has been in Texas meeting his soon-to-be in-laws. He arranged for a friend to tend to his two cats and asked me to take care of the Corgi named Zeus.

Zeus grew up here at my house as a puppy and he seemed quite at home. He has had no problem assimilating his old routine and seems very content to revert to being a spoiled pup.

The problem, well one of the problems, is that he is no longer a cute, furry, fuzzy, stump wagging, tongue flopping pup. Now he is a fully coated (and that means LOTS of hair), dog who is easily bored, constantly seeking attention and disdainful of anything he assumes to be "dog" food.

My son said he always eats only one type of dog food and he brought plenty of that over for Zeus' little vacation from the cats.

The first day I gave him an entire package following the instructions of one package in the morning and one in the late evening.

That evening it was still there. The next morning the food from the day before was still there.

I thought maybe he was missing Billy or the cats -- and that's a reach! So I gave him lots of extra attention. We went on a ride to Dairy Queen for ice cream. He used to love getting his Pup Cup when he was little.

When we got home he walked by his dog food, gave it a quick sniff, and got the ball he always chases. He brought it to me and when I ignored him, he held it in his mouth and ran around the house holding it. Then he brought it back and laid it in my lap, tilting his head toward the dining room.

He repeated the whole scenario twice before I gave up (or his mind figured it out) and spent 30 minutes playing fetch. I always know when he's tired of fetch because instead of returning the ball he hides it and comes back without it.

Not that he is finished playing, oh no. Next is "red light" which is actually a green laser light he chases around the house or yard.

He loves that game and will sit in front of the TV (the laser is always on top of the TV) and stare up at it till I again, figure out, that he wants to play.

I'm sure by now he thinks I'm a very dim-witted human and difficult to train. That's OK, I can handle that doggie impression -- if he would just give up on training me that is.

When I decided he had been too long without food (almost an entire day on one dish of ice cream) he and I went to McDonald's for a sandwich for me and a small cheeseburger (with nothing but cheese and meat on the bun) for him.

Nothing was wrong with his appetite then!

By the third day he had me trained to buy a cheeseburger at McDonald's and then stop at Dairy Queen for ice cream for both of us.

Today he's in trouble because I plan on cooking tonight. I suppose I should cook something where there will be left-overs.

Another puppy habit that this 60 pound pup has is getting rocked before bedtime. He used to fit comfortably on my lap while I rocked my chair and petting him till he dozed off.

Now the chair seems not exactly big enough for the two of us.

When my legs get to hurting from holding him, I push him off my lap, walk over and point to the couch saying, "Come lay down over here."

He obediently gets up and onto the couch where he makes a big production of settling in and stretching out. This lasts until I sit back down in my chair then here he comes begging to be held and rocked to sleep. He has a good memory I guess since he hasn't been rocked to sleep by anyone else for a year.

I hope he isn't too spoiled by the time Bill gets back home. Oh well, a little spoiling won't hurt him will it?

Until the next time friends, remember dogs have their own language when speaking to each other.

I think a lot of their conversations involve tips on "how to train your human."