I know I’m supposed to be dog whispering and tuning into Callie’s dog body language. Like tuning into pack behavior and all that stuff. Like “practice what your preach!” But why am I having to learn dog speak, when Callie speaks English?

We’re getting ready to have our two granddaughters visit for a few days, and we’re working on ways to get Callie to calm down around them. She’s a puppy in spirit and sometimes she’s too frisky for the girls, who are about 3 and 5 years old.

So, we’ve been working hard at enforcing some rules, like “Callie, you can’t climb up on the sofa any more.” It’s not that the sofa is so special, but we’re trying to do some good dog training and establish our authority more clearly. And Callie has been pretty good about it. It seems like she’s a lot more relaxed around the house. Only problem is, sometimes she goes off by herself, instead of hanging out with us.

You already know about “Stinky,” Callie’s one-half (front half) of a stuffed dog. “Stinky” is Callie’s security object, and she finds it just about every evening and nibbles on it gently, as if it helps her relax and get ready to fall asleep.

Last night, I called Callie into our den. She trotted into the den right away. Then I said, “Callie, why don’t you go get Stinky and come be here with us?”

You know what? She trotted down the other hallway to her crate, retrieved Stinky, and came back to spend the rest of the evening with us.

Most dog communication is “sit,” “stay,” and “come,” so it blew me away that Callie seemed to completely understand my whole sentence.

I am continually amazed at how smart Man’s best friend, the family dog, can be!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 6:54 pm and is filed under Callie, Dog Communication, Dog Talk, Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.