Red is still doing his therapy work, but I’ve decided to start training Bud more regularly as well. He did a great job this morning at the Mansion. I had him jump up and sit next to Jean on a sofa, and he was still and quiet. He greeted Brittany and Megan in the Mansion office, and then went into the Activity Room and let Winnie, Mary and Julie pet him.
I was impressed, he is calm and affectionate, and doesn’t rattle easily. The challenge now is to train him to go to the people, rather than look around for food or other work. In the car before we came in, I left him alone with a freshly-filled coffee cup in the holder in front.
The more attention and reinforcement he gets, the sooner he’ll get that.
When I got back into the car, I found that Bud had somehow lifted the lid off of the coffee cup (I can’t imagine how, it was on tight). He drank all the coffee in the cup, and without spilling a drop. I didn’t know whether to clap or yell at him. I did neither.
The two sides of Bud.
Today was a very good training session, I’m going to up them to three times a week. Red will be coming with me tomorrow to be with me when I read my stories to the residents.
So funny he drank the coffee. What a character.
Did the coffee keep Bud awake all night? LOL
BTW, BFJ is appearing again in my inbox-after I switched to a new email address. Yea!
Bless dear Bud…omg I laughed out loud ….drank all the coffee?! Hahaha….My great aunt Jess had a parrot who did the same… Thank you Jon for your inspiring and courageous words….Stand in my truth….God bless you!
Mo Miller, CA
Amazing he remained so “still and quiet” and “calm” after guzzling an entire coffee!!! 😉 Especially considering how little he weighs compared to a human! Good job Bud taking care of everyone around you!! Gus would be proud…
Bud is truly an amazing dog. A spirit dog, I believe. It is interesting how you seem to attract all the right dogs into your life! Or maybe it is just that you recognize them ahead of time! It is wonderful! Bud is a real treasure, as all the others have been!
I’m not surprised that Bud drank and entire cup of coffee. Terriers are different, they get into things you would never expect them to get into. I have had miniature schnauzers for more than 30 years and the two that I have now are the most terrier-ist of all of them. They get into and eat all sorts of stuff! Thankfully they can’t reach the counter tops unless it’s on the edge, then they can pull it off and devour what ever it is that I left there thinking it was safe. They’ve eaten entire rotisserie chickens, and frozen meat too many times to count. It has taken me time to learn what they can get into. Even if I think it’s safe, it isn’t. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked into my kitchen and found wrappers of something that they’d found and eaten. Living with terriers is much different than living with other breeds. My dad has several Havanese and they never get into anything. He has a Boston Terrier named Wendy Sue and she’s never done the kinds of things my schnauzers have done. The two I have now are the smartest. I swear the older one is teaching her younger brother how to find goodies hidden away in bags.