My Shadow

Juneau is the best dog in the whole world...she just tends to get underfoot sometimes. This is how she follows me around the house doing laundry or chores usually with her stuffed hedgie in her mouth. I have been working tirelessly at getting her to howl on command for months and a couple days ago she's finally got it! She had known the difference of sounds and would imitate me doing different woofs, but for some reason not a howl. She picked up her other tricks instantaneously but this one was hard. For her training, was that usually I catch her in the act of doing what I would like her to do on command and work from there giving rewards. After she knew the command, I'd work with her for about twenty minutes each day so she doesn't forget that "howl" means long note.  But a howl is a sound of distress for Juneau, and who wants to put their dog in distress for something cute? Wolves  howl in the wild to signal the boundaries of their territory...but for Juneau it seems to be "I'm lonely and I want to be inside with my people." Naturally, I can't oblige to her every request to be inside...I have important things like vacuuming and stuff to do. So she'd decide it was too long, and howl and then her crazy mamma would come running with a treat. No wonder she was so confused.