My dogs came to work the other day. They periodically do, and spend the day in the doctors' office behind a baby gate, often with 1-3 other doctors' dogs, and my bird. They know their way around the clinic pretty well: break room = crumbs and table snacks, treatment area = needles, nail trims, and other scary things.
This time around, at lunch time, they wandered off while I took a phone call. Turns out they went up front, and the girls up there were trying to guess what tricks they know. (One of them is a dog behaviourist who runs training classes) The conversation went something like this:
"I think she taught them some things."
"Hm... Do you guys know spin?"
*Dogs spin*
"Oh! Uhhh, how about down?"
*Dogs do 'take a bow', which is their default since it's the most recent trick they learned*
"Wow! Look at that! What about 'touch'?"
*Dogs frantically paw at her outstretched hand, since several tricks (like shake, wave, high five) combined in their heads into "smack the human's hand"*
"You're really good at that! Sit pretty?"
*Perfect 'sit pretties' as she holds a treat over their noses.*
I show up to find out what they'd wanted to ask me while I was on the phone--which was, "Can I give them more treats?" After being impressed at how "well trained" they are (i.e. extremely food motivated), they'd started teaching them new tricks. In particular, they were trying to get Tempest to jump over Shakespeare. They were having an issue with Shakespeare standing up the same instant she jumped over him, so they learned to anchor him down by putting treats on his front paws (he's good at "leave it"... in this sort of situation, anyway. Not if he thinks he can get away with something naughty).
Another day in the office, really.
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