My Pockets are Full of Cheese

And apples, and sausage, and I would put pate in there if I could...

BK and I have had to go back to the basics with our little four-legged friends.  We moved into our permanent apartment, which was such a relief, but it seems to have really impacted the boys.  A couple days after we moved in, we went out with some friends one night, then the next morning were informed by the upstairs neighbor that they barked the ENTIRE time we were gone.  I do feel this is somewhat of an exaggeration (they're never barking when we come back), but ultimately it was a disturbance to our neighbors, which is not good.  I've read many times before that noise is the cardinal sin in Switzerland...I now believe it to be true.

Trying hard not to piss off everyone in the building, we wrote an apology note, translated it into German and placed it in everyone's mailbox to let them know that we had just moved in, were sorry for the disturbance and were working on it as soon as possible.

So, back to the cheese in my pockets.  Like I said, we're back to the basics, meaning that we reward them for everything good they do, meaning that I often have these things in my pockets as to ALWAYS have them with me.  Sometimes I wonder what that smell is...well, it's usually that I have cheese in my pocket and have forgotten about it.

Ignore noises outside? Treat.  Stay on their bed while I go into the other room? Treat. Don't bark while I'm on the phone?  Treat. You get the picture. These treats are not just dog treats (in fact, not dog treats at all), but mild Swiss cheese, little sausages and apples, all of which are cut into tiny pieces by yours truly.  I didn't open the pate until today, and only did because Tanner was being stubborn and refusing all the other treats.  He rebelled a little bit after BK had to go out of town this week, but we're back on track now.

We didn't get this idea ourselves.  We hired a trainer to come to our apartment last Saturday to help with the boys.  She assures us that no matter how old, the dogs can learn what we want them to do. I certainly hope so.  We've made progress, but have a long way to go.  BK and I will be getting retrained for the next couple of weeks.  I have dreams of our family coming over to discover that we have completely different dogs- i.e. so well behaved!  We'll see.  One day at a time and teeny tiny baby steps moving forward.