"I only count the bright hours" - sundial inscription

So, when I say my 12wo dog knows SIT, STAY, DOWN, WAIT, HOLD, DROP, MINE, COME, SPEAK (new!), and STAND (new!), I don't mean he always obeys them. Not even that he usually obeys them. In fact, in the case of the latest two commands, I only mean he obeyed them at least once, in a way that assured me he wasn't acting randomly (he actually did the action on command).

I only count the bright hours.



When I say he's almost self-housebroken, I'm bragging about the four-day stretch of no accidents we had recently; not the following 3-accident day (the first accident was my fault; I slept through his request).

Now, on to bragging about how the quietest dog in the world, Dexter Black, called "Dextro ille Magnifico" by the Medici's, was able to learn SPEAK in just one day.

I took my cues from my fave puppy book, Mother Knows Best, by Carol Lea Benjamin. To stop a dog from barking or whining (and the latter is sometimes a habit of Dexter), first you need to be able to initiate it. She recommends using excited, high-pitched commands & actions to get the dog to SPEAK, then rewarding. The problem I anticipated: it's not every day that Dexter barks... so I assumed this might take weeks to accomplish.

The next few times he whimpered or barked at a toy, I post-commanded SPEAK!, and ran over and immediately GOOD BOYed him for doing it right. He was baffled... but dogs aren't the kind to look a gift horse in the mouth!

Later that day, we were playing, and he got growly on his chew toy. I stood up (frustrating his ability to get at me, which increased his anxiety level), and began half-lifting-off with my arms, while saying SPEAK! in increasingly silly tones. Each time he made the slightest whuffle, he got a GOOD.

We repeated this occasionally throughout the day, and later that evening, perfectly calm, when asked to SPEAK, he did! OMG, I was so proud, my chest went up two shirt sizes.

SPEAK is still not an easy one for my quiet doggy, but I'm trying to encourage it before we go outside for toilet breaks. [1] He's better at SPEAK than he is at STAND, I'll tell you.

[1] His toilet breaks, for the record.

In fact, any command that requires him to increase energy (SIT while laying down, STAND while sitting or laying...) is hard for my boy. Like me, he really just wants to race around a little, then rest his butt all day.