Last summer Sadie learned how to hoist her tiny little body up and down stairs with the loving assistance of our niece, Mo. We watched as she sat at the bottom of the staircase looking up to the second floor landing. We think she must have wondered: “How can I move my puppy paws and take my body with me up that giant mountain of wood?” Sadie was six months old at the time. She had arrived a month earlier. She had a lot of territory to investigate and commit to nasal memory, both inside and outside of the house. She also had to contend with the extremely frisky Lily, who herself was only eight months old. When Mo arrived on the scene we were desperate to apply her most excellent dog handling skills to the task at paw (hee hee!!!): Teach Sadie to climb.
Mo is patient with Sadie, perhaps the most patient of anyone who encounters our little squirt. That is a really good thing. Mo is also a great teacher! She helped Sadie to learn that she could conquer the wood mountain one step at a time. At first, Sadie could only manage one or two steps at a time before heading back to her starting place. Soon, she was able to walk up and bounce down, still - one step at a time. With lots of practice and coaching from Mo, she was running stairs in just three days! Now she runs them two sets at a time, up and down, at full puppy crazy speed. For a little extra fun, she skips the last three steps on the way down, and with paws stretched out pretends she can fly like Underdog!
MM & RY 2008
I’ve forgotten all of my nasal memory. Some I wish I had back but there is quite a lot that i don’t!