On Cue

At Helping Paws we train our dogs using both verbal and physical cues. It seems Belle has caught on to this system and is now using it to train me.

My case on point; Belle usually lets me know when she wants to go out by simply going to the door. If I don't respond to her "cue" right away, she'll give me a "grine" - a cross between a growl and a whine. If Belle has just been outside for "business", I will often ignore her or put her in a drop/stay if I'm working because I know she just wants to check out the world. However, apparently I've responded to one other of her bodily cues once too often. You guessed it, she now farts when I ignore her first two cues.

Now this isn't just any old dog fart. No, she plays it off our wooden floors as if they were a fine violin, the sound reverberating through the room while she gives me a look of utmost embarrassment, glancing around worriedly at her backside as if horrified that something else might have escaped along with all the noise.

Talk about your really desperate, "honest, I really have to go, please let me out now" cue.

The trouble is, after a few days of believing she really had to go, I started watching her when I let her out. Sure enough, she headed straight out to the alley to check on our neighbors and then picked up a favorite toy to roll all over it. Anything but the "business" she implied was so urgent by rumbling a posterior breeze off the wooden floors.

I guess I'll just have to teach her that farting on cue is an ill wind that blows no good.