Free Finally Home-Lessons on Life from a Free-Spirited Dog by Elizabeth Parker Page B

thing that worked out to our favor. Nine times out of ten, he learned to behave at dinner knowing he would soon be rewarded with a treat. Brandi caught onto to this , too. They never made a peep. Even at their food bowl, we trained them to both sit and wait until we gave the command of “ ok ay . ” Then they could eat.
    Buddy was always the little gentleman at dinnertime ; he actually waited until Brandi had food in her dish before he would begin his meal . We never even had to tell him to “wait.” He just did it on his own.
    If both of them were exceptionally good, not only would they get table scraps but they would also get rewarded with one of their favorite treats. For Buddy, it wa s one of the following: carrots, peanut butter, Chinese fortune cook ies, or cheese. For Brandi, it wa s mostly bananas or a small taste of coffee. Although coffee is not good for dogs, we always let her sip a very small drop or two. She would stare us down if we did not .
    While things were definitely not eas y by any means, we were starting to understand what strategies worked or w hat tactics merely wasted time. His bad habits were slowly disappearing.

Chapter 7- Comfort Level
    As with most relationships, after a few years, you reach a certain comfort level. With humans, you start to read each other’s moods better and finish each other’s sentences. With dogs, you find out how to resolve issues and turn unreleased energy into a positive and happy experience.

    As the years progressed , we grew more attached to Buddy and him to us. We learned how to live with this crazy dog at least on some sort of co mfort level. We discovered a school yard with acres of land and set him free to run there at least two to three times per week. It was remarkable to observe how fast and how far this dog would go. There was no limit to his energy.
    Things did not always go so smoothly if there were peo ple on the field, as dogs were not allowed , and people would get annoyed. It worked for us most of the time , however, and when we took him home, he would rest for a little while and then be ready to go all over again within an hour.
    Even during inclement weather, we faithfully adhered to his exerting exercise routine. We had a particularly huge snow storm one year and took him to the schoolyard afterwards so that he could sprint through the snow. As soon as we let him off of the leash, he hurdled over the super large snow banks with minimal effort and crossed to the other end of the field within mere seconds.
    I do not think that we had climbed on top of the first snow bank when he started racing toward us and back again. He was able to run through all of this snow at top speed, while we were struggling to walk five feet.
    During the hotter months, we found other ways to keep them occupied and active. Summers were becoming e xtraordinarily fun. We had an above-ground pool , and our two dogs absolutely loved to swim. Michael bought a gigantic p lastic ladder that had steps wide enough so that the dogs c ould climb in and out of the pool at their leisure while we were present.
    Above-ground pools have liner s that rip easily , so we had to take caution that the dogs did not get close to it . This was n ot as simple as it sounds as t hey would swim toward the deck and frantically try to claw their way out when they were ready.
    Again, routine here was the key ingredient to making any of this enjoyable . The days of swimming by ourselves were gone, as the minute we had changed into our bathing suits , the dogs would become wild with anticipation. We usually found them pacing by the outside door waiting to go for a swim .
    The ocean was another story as it was a bit easier for them to swim. Since they were able to feel the sand under neath their feet, they would only swim until they could no longer feel it .
    In the pool, that was not the case. They knew how to swim just fine , but would come directly to us and latch onto us. We needed to wear t-shirts in