Darby learning some lessons

Darby isn't so much a little puppy anymore.  We went to the vet last week for his second set of shots and he was 24lbs!  I bet he is even more than that now.  His paws are now bigger than Serena's and his ears are awkwardly huge.  For the past month (wow its been a month) I have let him get away with a few things Serena would never get away with.  Now I am expecting him to do more.

Last night I was cooking dinner and had two dogs weaving between my feet.  This is not cool so Darby learned "out."  Serena knows "out" wonderfully and will scatter when I say it.  Darby has no clue what it means.  So I said "out" and then backed him out of the kitchen with my body.  Every time he would cross the line into the kitchen from the living room I would say out and use my body to push him out.  It took all of  2 minutes for him to figure it out.  He would sit right on the edge of the carpet and wag his tail when I would tell him how wonderful and smart he is.

This morning I went to say hi to him and he launched himself at me and jumped up.  This is a big "NO."  Some people think it is so cute but then this cute puppy turns into a 90lb dog that is knocking you over.  So instead of waiting till then to fix it Darby got pushed to the ground.  Meaning I just pretended to keep walking so that my leg hit him and knocked him off balance.  He was so in shock but then got back up and sat perfectly in front of me.  He then got praised and rubbed.  He was so happy to figure it out.

In other news he is now waiting a full minute before eating his food.  He will not go to his food bowl until I say 'okay release.'  This has made his "wait" really really good.  I love it!!!  Also he went to his first horse show (all the above pics are from that).  He at first was super excited about all the commotion but quickly settled down when he realized Serena didn't care.  He also wanted to chase all the horse in the ring but I kept telling him to leave it and eventually he realized his attempts were silly.  He was decided that taking a nap was more fun.

We also were at the Toyota Dealership to get my car fixed and while there Serena and Darby checked out a 2011 Toyota Sienna; the car we won in the 100 Cars for Good.  I cannot wait till MAWP gets their Sienna.  It is freaking amazing and fully loaded.  Wow!