More Exciting Than Dead Things!

This picture isn't terribly relevant to the post, but it's a funny picture. Mimi is totally pooped after a raucous play session. February 2009.

In her first year at PAWS, Mimi would regularly take a couple of jumps then run to the far ends of the field looking for dead things. The field is large, several acres, and she would of course always return triumphant, bringing me small bones with bits of fur and gristle attached or, god forbid, petrified poop of some sort. It took months of applying techniques I learned in Control Unleashed to get her to remain focused long enough to complete sequences.

Today, one of our sequences ended on a jump set far down the field. As usual, I threw her bunny fur tug-n-treat as she cleared the last jump. Unfortunately, it landed a few feet from a particularly smelly dead thing so she dropped her precious baby in favor of smelly dead thing. I had to go get both her and the toy.

Later, another sequence began near that far jump. As we were running down the field to get to the starting point, Mimi decided to keep going and make sure her smelly dead thing was still there. I stopped and firmly said "Mimi, NO!" Not angry, not shrill. Just firm. She whipped around and came right back to me, which caused me to start jumping up and down shouting "I'm more exciting than dead things!" Mimi got a big handful of treats for that little breakthrough moment.