Getting happier every day

So Tango and Schroder are both doing fabulously. I was commenting to Dave (my roommate in the picture wearing his bathrobe!) that it's sad that so many people would not adopt these two because Schroder is older. Before I'd even finished my sentence, Schroder did a little "let's play!" bow in front of Dave, then rolled over onto his back and wiggled around on the floor, trying hard to get Dave to play with him. Dave said, "old? I think he's got a long time yet to go!" and played with Schroder for a while until Schroder decided dinner was better.

Tango has also started doing this- rolling in the floor, chasing a bit through the house and giving us playful over-the-shoulder looks hoping we'll come down and play too! This is totally new for both of them. They've done a bit of rolling when they're itchy but this is definitely new. They seem to be learning that they're dogs- and in order to be a dog you need to have fun! We've been working on their "play" skills with games of fetch, tug, running back and forth with wild abandon, scenting games, and so on.

We're also working on basic commands, such as sit (teaching with hand signals for Schroder's benefit), down, stand, and "which one" (pick the closed-hand the treat is in). They are great at sit when you have a treat but the rest of them are pretty shakey still. They hardly need them, being such perfectly behaved dogs, but I figured it couldn't hurt.

We also had our first nail-trimming session. I got 2 nails done on Tango, who does not like having her feet touched, let alone nails trimmed (she pulls her foot away and licks your hands). Schroder didn't care at all- after each nail he got a belly rub and he was happy as a clam!