Just say no to goats, and other things Banksy’s been learning.


It might seem like all I do to train my puppy is this.


But actually there’s a lot of this.

Things that look a teensy bit like agility!

Right now, we’re working on driving down stairs to awesome nose touches using little targets like rocks or leaves. Left and right directionals are our current favorite the last few days, which Banksy thinks is a hilarious trick. They look a little frantic spinny at the moment, but I think that’s an ok start. She can be an overachiever. Seek and Taps, which is our redneck americanized version of Cik and Caps, much fun of running around buckets and trees! Crate games. A lot. A lot. When the toy is flying or the other dogs are running! Baby jump grids with the bumps! Sending around cones and buckets and trees and big rocks in a sort of handlinish kinda way!

A lot of teensy games right now that look like the sprouting of little agility thingies. Just games. No big. But very fun.

Lots of nice walking practice of not pulling on the leash. I can now walk around our neighborhood with 4 dogs on leashes. An impressive freak show for the neighbors. The neighborhood consensus is that Banksy is a coyote. No more husky. We even tried out West Cliff Drive the other day. Success, and a coyote walking freak show for the tourists.

Lots and lots and lots of tricks. Through the legs. Beep beep beep. Back feet. Front feet. Pivots. Paw waving. Once her lefts and rights are always lefts and rights, we are going to start working on waving back feet. I’ve never taught that one before. So far she does all of Otterpop’s tricks, minus the circus sitting up, so Otterpop may have to learn to wave all her feet if she’s going to stay the circus queen. Banksy loves learning tricks as much as Otterpop. Maybe even more. Uh oh…don’t tell Otterpop.

Our weak point? Recalls when a lot of dogs are running fast and playing with the ball at work. Or at agility. Oh my. Distractions, distractions, and more distractions is our weak spot. Lots to keep working on here. LOTS.


The goats, not so much. Walking by the goat pen made Banksy say GRRRRRR and then go look for butterflies all the way back. I am with Banksy on this one. Just say no to goats.


There’s a lot of this, too. Every day. In fact, we gotta go, NOW! No time for writing stuff anymore. Banksy sure fits right in to the team, although she doesn’t always fit on the same log.