Got a great thank you letter from my nephew today:
You may remember (but probably don't) that before Christmas I was moaning that the toy gun I got him cost nearly the equivalent of $50. Not that I minded paying that for his present (it was about my target price) but it seemed excessive for a toy gun.
Well the gun was called a "Retaliator" and the Retaliator tried really hard to live up to it's price. It was big, looked like a cross between a machine gun and a gun out of a sci-fi movie. It actually fired (similar method to a BB gun), but instead of ball bearings it fired three inch long foam rubber missiles, and had a rapid fire action. It was this "Retaliator" that my nephew was thanking me for. His thank you letter was short, just two lines, and said:
Dear Uncle Paul
Thank you very much for the Retaliator.
There are now no more squirrels in the garden.
(Although since my sister, his mother, is a vegetarian - I doubt if she is all that happy with the use he put to my present!)
Puppy News
The puppy has at last learnt the "tree command".
The tree command is for when he is on a lead and goes round one side of a tree and I go round the other. The idea is I yell "Tree" and he backs up and goes round the other side (my side) of the tree.
Normally I can teach this to a dog within a week. It took the puppy nearly a year to learn it!
The first problem was his cowardice and fear of everything. To start the training I yell "Tree" and pull on the lead, so that the dog is pulled back round my side of the tree. It usually only takes a few goes before they realise what is happening and walk round the tree themselves.
But the puppy saw me pulling on the lead and expected to be pulled towards me. Of course he wasn't, he was pulled backwards and away from me. He panicked - this was against the laws of nature, so he dug his claws into the grass and refused to move.
A ridgeback is a big strong dog and hard to move when he does not want to be moved. So it took me months to get him to let me pull him back around the tree, and longer to get him to think to try walking round himself.
Then came the second problem. He always went the wrong way round the tree, tyeing himself to it with the lead. I don't mean he made this mistake 50% of the time (which the law of averages dictates he should do if he was just guessing at which way to go), he literally went the wrong way every single time. He had to have thought about it and decided that was the right way to go, and would not try the other way until I grabbed his collar and guided him round.
But today he managed it all on his own. I said "tree", gave a slight tug on the lead, and he backed up and went the correct way round it!
And he was so pleased with himself when he realised he had got it. He spent ages jumping up and down like a spring lamb, to celebrate, then jumped up at me and licked my face.
Boy was he one happy puppy, all because he had worked out how to walk round a tree!!!!!!
