what a good girl

I am convinced Olive's brain is very large. Larger than average for a puppy her age. The Jess-ter does not agree. This morning while waiting for our subway transfer I tried to "prove" to her why I thought she was so smart. I couldn't really gather many examples, but now that I think more about it, our morning makes a nice example.

This morning, Olive woke up with the sun at her usual 6-ish. She always wakes up between 6 and 6:30 because no matter what, those curtains we have are simply not complete black-out shades. This is normal and fine by me. It gives us the right amount of time if we all wake up on her schedule. She began whining, but not badly and no barking. So I let her out, she went straight to her piddle pad, relieved herself and then waited patiently while I used the bathroom for a treat. She might have even been...(gasp!)...sitting! She was then unusually good by climbing onto my lap as soon as she saw her harness. She helped by putting her head through and was very quiet, patient, and cooperative after that while I carried her downstairs to go out.

She left the apartment building on her own. (Sometimes, you have to pick her up for the entry-way part and just place her outside once you are out, but this time she walked right out the door on her own accord!) She walked pretty well, meaning only minor pulling and biting of the leash and eating garbage off the ground and as soon as we turned the corner off of the main avenue we live on, she moved to the side (to the side! the side!) of the sidewalk to do her #2. She had a beautiful little squat in which she did not move all around (i.e. didn't accidentally step in it while she was going) and then moved out of my way and SAT, waiting for her treat! I cleaned it up, gave her the treat, and then she was all frisky and ran down the rest of the block. I'll admit, she wasn't as good after that. She keeps trying to bite her leash as she is walking/prancing!

She walked as far as she could right into the apartment (until the stairs that are steep even for humans) and was happy to lick the Jess-ter when I put her in bed with her to say good morning. She did not bark for her breakfast and when she piddled again she sat right after to wait for her treat! Such a smart and good girl! We are finally getting the hang of this, I think! It really helps that we automatically have a pretty strict schedule due to our jobs and commuting.

When it was time to leave, she could sense that it was time for her to be in her crate from the typical scuffling of last minute bathroom touch-ups, gathering of coats, and assembling of bags. We put all of her toys in her crate with her, I put on my coat, I went into the kitchen to get her goodbye treat, and when I turned around she was nicely sitting in her crate on her make-shift bed! She knew we were leaving and that she had to get ready with us, too! Perfect little girl...

Alas, her extreme intelligence might be due to the fact that she finally has begun to understand this:
doing what they want = treats.

I was reading this article all about schedule-based training as opposed to crate or paper training, and I think we are doing a pretty good job keeping her "schedule-based" all along and we didn't even know it. Harrah!

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And now, for some cute bath pictures from the weekend! Since she is so small and therefore easy to control, she does not give us too much trouble in the bath. This was her first time in the actual bathtub, as opposed to the kitchen sink which we used before.