Well-Trained Dogs

Our dogs thrive on routine. Every morning, they get excited because they know breakfast is coming when I get out of the shower and get dressed. I’ve been using an automatic dog feeder with great success, being precisely on time ALL the time, the dogs get very attuned.They do the same thing around 5PM when they know dinner is coming. Last night, I found out just how ingrained their patterns have become.

Every night before we go to bed, we have the dogs go outside to go to the bathroom and then have them go to their crate for bed. Last night, the pattern went as normal… except they went through the entire routine without me saying a single word. They went outside to pee, then immediately came back in and went to their crate, awaiting their normal treat for doing so. It was almost Pavlovian, but without any bells.

My next goal? Train them to take their own baths.