What Serena knows so far

Figured I would make a list to see how many commands Serena knows now! Here it goes:

Things she knows:

-Sit
-Stay
-Heel (left side)
-Down
-Make a Friend (give paw)
-High five
-Get your leash (pick up leash off of floor)
-My lap (put paws in my lap)
-Speak (according to Serena this means "snap, snap, snap, sneeze, rawr, snap, WOOF")
-Tug (really good at opening the fridge and almost can open the stall door all the way)
- Come
-Leave it
-Busy (going potty)
-Move (move away from where you are at)
-Up (putting front paws up on counters, tables etc.)
-Off (front paws off of counters, tables etc)

Things we are working on and she almost gets them:
-Stand (standing on all four feet)
-Front (facing front)
-Side (right side heel)
-Push (close a door or something with nose)
-Back (moving backwards)
-Get your bowl (really hard cause it is metal)
-Jump on (all four paws onto something)
-Jump off (get off of said object)

I am probably forgetting something but 24 things so far! yay! And we have so much more to learn!

Another Video

I know many of you like seeing videos of Serena so I took some today of her doing some of the stuff she knows. The second half is her latest trick "get your leash." She learned that 2 days ago and is fairly good at it but sometimes she just chooses to look at me and pretend she has no clue what I am talking about. She used to do that with the fridge though and now she opens it with one tug and is very useful when I am cooking and my hands are full but I need to open the fridge... so much fun!! But anywho enjoy this video :-)

Play dates and such!

Many of my friends are home visiting for Winter Break so of course we had to get together and have puppy play dates. The first one was with 2 black labs who were out of shape but very cute. Serena did most of the running and playing but they got into it too! The second was with a jack russell/pit bull mix who Serena LOVED! They played great together and were absolutely exhausted and covered in slobber afterwards!

Our training is going well! The Halti that Serena now wears works great with the pulling. We joke that she wanted to fit in at the barn with all the horses. She now stays in the aisle with me for the most part since her stay command is awesome now! Before I couldn't really trust that she would stay while I did things and I didn't want her moving and going under the horses or something. Now I park her where she can see me and Reggie and she watches the world go by. Also now I am handing her off to people while I work with Reggie and they take her for walks around the barn or practice commands with her. Probably the cutest thing was when I let a kid take her for a walk. When Serena first met this girl a couple weeks ago she was afraid of her for no reason. Now she walked in a perfect heel and listened when the kid asked her to sit and down and stuff. Awesome! Now onto pics:

Flying puppy

Maggie makes Serena look so very small

Puppy kisses at a stoplight

Trying to get a pic like the one I got on the first day I had her... it kind of worked

She can open the fridge!

I have been working on the Tug Command with Serena for a couple days now and today it clicked in her head what I was asking. She kept tugging until the fridge opened! Of course I took a video of her doing it because it is so cute:

After working with the fridge I decided to see if I could get her to go "up" on the wall with a light switch so I can later start light switch training. She figured the up part out right away! So I took another video of her 2nd time using the "up" command on a wall. Then I said "heel" to see if she was paying attention. She is so very good!!

Chicago

My family and I went to Chicago last night for dinner and to see Second City.  Of course I took Serena with us!  I wasn't sure how she would do since it was her first time going downtown.  Walking to the restaurant she didn't care at all about the traffic or noises and happily bounced around.  We went to the Athenian Room like we always do (I have been going there since I was born).  They were very nice about Serena and asked all sorts of questions.  Serena is getting better about just sitting at my feet while we eat dinner.  She sat up and lay down a lot but other than that didn't really try to move.  The restaurant is very small and the tables are close together so I think she was a little nervous about everyone walking right by her and all the noise and commotion.  Overall she did great.

Then we went to see Second City ETC.  We got there really early to get good seats and to explain to them about Serena incase they had a problem with it.  While walking through the parking garage a security guard stopped us and said we weren't allowed to bring pets into the building.  All I had to say was that she was a service dog and he was like oh no problem go ahead!  Really nice.  The people at Second City loved her.  While waiting, we went to the control booth to say hi to everyone working there since some people wanted to see her but couldn't leave the booth.  She made tons of new friends and everyone loved her.  While waiting we also got to practice some commands and she listened very well.  During the show she was a little freaked out with the clapping but by the second half she just slept at my feet and it didn't bother her.  She also couldn't figure out the people on stage moving around and spent awhile watching them but was very good about just sitting and watching.  When we brought her home she was very tired and went straight to sleep!


Waiting for the show:

Practicing the stay command next to the wall of stars outside the theater. She looks so little!