Day 215: Training Day/ Drop it Like it's Hot

Things you need to know about the puppy/family relationship:

1. Mark does everything.

What Mago would look like on a roller coaster

I would have never gotten a puppy myself because I just don't know all that much about dogs. I lived with them growing up, but even then I felt like the cool aunt who would come play but never have to do any of the care.

So far, if you couldn't tell from the video about me failing to go to puppy school, is that Mark taught Mago a huge repertoire of tricks such as sit, down, roll over (a perennial favorite, even when not prompted), touch (with his nose), paws (the precursor to high five), high five, stay, leave it, and probably a few others I'm forgetting.

My joke for a while was that I taught him one trick--be cute.

It's a win-win. He does it 100% of the time, and about 80 percent of the time, he'll look at me when I say it. It is love.

But let's be honest. It's no real trick.

Mago in his basket of toys, all of which he knows how to drop!

On Day 215, however, I finally taught Mago a real trick: drop it.

This means that whenever he brings me a toy, I'll tell him to drop it, fighting his typical response of viciously protecting it in his mouth and tugging/teething furiously at it until he gets bored. Now, with "drop it," the game can continue...and he gets a treat!

I'm sure you don't want to learn how I taught him to drop it, but that's okay. Just know, it makes me feel like a NINJA. I have mind control over my dog. Domestication at it's finest.