1.16.2009

fetch it yourself

As I am about to write this blog I am realizing (AGAIN!) how much of our lives excitement revolves around the 120 pound beast that lives in our house. Pretty pathetic I know. But if Romulus was your dog you'd realize how crazy and hilarious he was. Sometimes I think he knows what we are talking about and I really do think he knows how to spell.

Last week I asked Mitchell if he was going to take Romulus on a w-a-l-k. I couldn't say "walk" because I know he would have started flipping out, run straight for the garage door,
raring up like a horse and not stop until he got his walk. Romulus - not Mitchell. What did he do when I spelled w-a-l-k?

Yes, he gets this glare in his eyes.

"Get off your lazy bowhinney and walk me, now!"

So he got his walk from Mitchell, not me. I am sure I had something very important to take care of in the house. I didn't even get any pictures of him jumping up and down, those all came out blurry and he looked a bit insane.

Romulus' new year's resolution is to learn how to jump through hoops (I'm not crazy, I've seen great dane's do tricks) and catch treats in his mouth. Now, we read up and did our research about his breed type before we adopted him from this HSU student. (a house full of college boys to be specific, which probably contributes to his erratic behavior. even after 1 year) Great danes aren't really known for their golden retriever abilities. Fetching, catching toys... jumping through hoops. They can do it, but after LOTS and LOTS of training. By professional who get paid a lot of money, which poor HSU staff and teachers like us don't have. But that is not going to deter me.

Yesterday during lunch I decided we were going to work on fetching and catching treats up in the air. We didn't on fetching for long. I'd throw a treat, which was about the size of pecan. I know, not a good size treat for a great dane. My sister asked if they were left over treats from when we owned our chihuahua. Thanks, Vicki. This is how our afternoon went:

I'd throw, Romulus would watch.


I'd thow, Romulus would walk to the treat, eat the treat and run around the back yard.

I'd throw. Romulus would stop and look and me then resume his regular rolling in grass.Unsuccessful.

I'd stop and wonder why in the heck I am playing fetch with treats and not a ball. End of playing fetch.

Then we decided to try to catch the treats. This series of events didn't go so well either, but was highly amusing.

I pulled out the treat, "Romulus, are you ready?"

Romulus: proceeds to jump, run and flip out. (over a pecan sized treat)

I throw the treat up in the air, he stops and watches the treat fall to the ground and then eats it. We do this about 5 times.

Bright idea (from the lady whose not a trainer) throw the treat directly into his mouth, you know while he's flipping out and jumping around like a rabid beast. While not successful this was VERY FUNNY. Until one hit the back of his throat. He coughed it up. Picked up back up. Ate it then ran around the back yard doing figure eights.

Round one training session: done. Can't catch. Can't fetch.

1 comment:

Julie and Alberto Robles said...

Yay! I'm sending encouraging thoughts to Romulus.