This morning I read an entry from one of my favorite blogs, Hyperbole and a Half.  She inspired me to think about the way my dog sees the world:

I think dogs make frequent use of exclamation points.  On our walk today we worked on "heel."  He did pretty well - when he realized that I was talking to him, and there were no squirrels plotting against him.

On a more serious note, when training it's easy to forget that dogs don't understand sentences.  They can understand certain words, visual cues, and sound effects... but they can't put those together like we can.  For example, as I reached into the car to get his treats out of my purse for the walk, I found myself saying "No car." as he got up into the front seat.  Now Lance understands "No" (sort of) to mean "Stop".  (I actual find a loud "Ah ah ah!" noise to be more effective in getting him to stop whatever he's doing.)  He knows what the car is.  But he can't figure out that "No Car" means that we are not going to be going for a car ride.  He can't put those two words together.

When training, it's important to keep things clear, be consistent, and keep rewards frequent but not predictable.  Hopefully in a couple of weeks he'll associate coming to me to mean that he is getting treats... and I MIGHT be comfortable enough to take him to the dog park...?

In other news, spring cleaning has taken the house by storm.  We got a nice new computer desk with much more space for organizing junk... I've switched out the fall/winter clothes with the spring/summer ones (even though it's been SNOWY...) and organized our downloaded TV Shows.  I am currently procrastinating tackling the dreaded basement - it'll be quite a task, as I have LOADS of costume pieces that I won't be keeping...

I've also cleaned house on Facebook - deleted "friends", apps, groups... junk that I don't use, talk to, or enjoy.  I've reached a point where I find that Facebook is the most negative and unproductive thing in my life... so I'm trying to limit my time to two times a day (once in the morning, once in the evening) and focus more on my blogs, my house, Dog, Husband, friends and hobbies.  I've deleted another string of people (now I've got mostly actual friends, theater contacts, and a people that I just really like or find interesting even though I wouldn't call them friends.)

I love purging my life of useless stuff.  It's definitely the only thing that keeps me from being a hoarder.