Farm Fresh Blog

As I confessed earlier this week in Lazy? , I am a Lazy Person, who is more than willing to train a Border Collie to be my most willing and able servant. This is a great deal of fun for both me and Border Collie.  Since she recently got a bit overexuberant and pulled one of the gates off its hinges (while she was repeatedly slamming it shut during a photoshoot to demonstrate what a wonderful help a dog is to Lazy People!), I decided to indulge Other Half in his desire to finally have a dog who would "Get him a beer!"

Lily loves training of any sort.  She trains me as much as I train her. It's really more of a jam session than a dog training session, as anything with Lily always involves the free exchange of ideas on both sides.  So last night at 1 AM, we demonstrated to Other Half our progress in the "Get me a beer" trick. (then I told him that we broke the gate!)  "WHAT?!!!"

This past week we have been learning the skill of opening the refrigerator,  (very easy) and a separate skill of picking up a cold drink in a coozie (very hard).  This is what happens when you give a cold Dr Pepper to a 1 1/2 year old Border Collie:

 Since this didn't happen until she had retrieved it several times, it was "well shaken."  Thus, we had Dr Pepper spewing all over a $700 Lazy Boy and a confused but delighted Border Collie.

I decided to table this part of the trick until we'd purchased a sturdier coozie.

BUT . . . there was still another step we could work on - Reach in the refrigerator and grab a desired object!

For this task I employed the skills of Lily's best friend, Chuck!    (Chuck lays around and smiles.)

 (Please do not tell my mother that I'm keeping a slobbery dog toy in my refrigerator.  Yes, this is only one of the many reasons why we rarely entertain in our home.)

So last night while Other Half took pictures for you, Lily and I demonstrated her progress:

"Lily, open the fridge, and get Chuck!"

  "Hello Lily!"

  Mission Accomplished!

Because Lily is a Border Collie with OCD, this trick can be done at least 50 times in a row, or until she rips the refrigerator door off the hinges, whichever comes first.