Champion of My HeartA real-time memoir about life with a fearful border collie, by Roxanne Hawn

The day after Thanksgiving, when many still have pots and pans soaking, is a good time to share this video of Lilly putting away her dog toys. You’ll notice that she holds them down with her foot. That’s because she often puts her toys away with such enthusiasm that they fly out of the basket. No reward for that, so Lilly learned to make sure they stay put. Therefore, the foot bonus action became part of the dog trick.

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So, I spent a little time, just a few minutes, working on HOW I might teach Lilly to wag her tail on cue. We’ll have to keep working on it, but I plan to treat the the wag / no wag a bit like an on / off switch. Here is my 5-step plan for teaching this dog trick.

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After Memorial Day Weekend, I prepared to amaze you with a new video of Lilly showing off her trick called BALANCE. It’s essentially where she sits up like a chipmunk. It’s actually an old trick, but over the long weekend she suddenly could pop up from a seated position without any help from me.

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One of my dog magazine editors challenged me to teach Lilly to vacuum, after seeing Lilly CLEAN UP her toys. That would be a major dog trick and feat, for a couple reasons. A) Lilly is afraid of the vacuum. B) It’s really heavy. So, instead, I decided to teach her to dust mop the tile floors.

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