Now that Bonnie is five and a half months old, I'm beginning to expect more from her. She is taller and weighs more and is starting to look like a real dog. But many times during the day I'm reminded of how young she still is. Bonnie is very active and gets bored easily. I have to come up with things for her to do all day long, especially because we don't have another dog. Luckily, there are times when she can entertain herself by chewing on a bone or playing with a toy.

When Bonnie and I were taking the puppy class, I began short training sessions with Bonnie at home. I wanted to be sure she learned things in time for the next class. Because of this, Bonnie is used to a little training each day. It's kind of like homework, only Bonnie thinks we're playing games. Learning is always more fun when you're playing a game, right?

Last week we worked on the command, 'down'. I want Bonnie to learn this because if she's wild or we have company, I can have her lie down and control her behavior. Another reason is that we can take her places and she will be well-behaved around others.

Some dogs have a hard time learning down, but if you keep it fun and only do a little bit each day, your dog will learn it. Here's Bonnie when we first started learning. She was very silly!

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