Steve can eat it.

[Hedgewitch]

Recently I had decided to teach the girls fun dog tricks. Mali and Rani know how to do tight circles in front of me. Mali learned how to make a circle around me and to then sit in front of me, and how to bow. Rani learned how to do a double high five, and a low five.

All three girls know how to jump up and take food from my husband's mouth. I had decided I was going to teach them how to crawl but it was just too hard for me to do with my balance issues.

Steve has taken over teaching the trick of crawling for me. It makes me laugh so hard to watch them. I have to hide while I watch or the girls will not work for him. I hear him in the kitchen saying to them. "You will do this for Mama, how come you will not do this for me?" Every time he says Mama, they run to the door to look for me and he has to call them back, saying she is not coming get over here. They finally settle in and start to work, and then I sneak over after I am sure they are working.

Rani is the best crawler out of the three girls, because Steve is offering what she considers a high end treat, chicken jerky. She will crawl half way across the kitchen floor for a small piece of chicken jerky; Mali only half-heartedly crawls, with her tush still up in the air looking more like a foot ball player ready to tackle Steve for the jerky then a dog who is crawling. She has little interest in learning to crawl.

Yuki though she is the funniest, last night the girl knew I was watching because I burst out laughing when she out smarted Steve. She comes up with all kinds of things to get out of learning a new trick. To night she used the I am so sweet look, of lowering her head and ears while flicking her tongue as if she would offer Steve a kiss. She swept that bushy tail of hers softly from side to side, nice an low while wiggling her hips seductively, getting real close and snuggling, anything to take his mind off of whatever trick he want her to do. She is so Steve's delight and stole his heart every time.

Last night he told her to sit, okay she sat. She will sit because that always means she is going to be getting food and he was giving out chicken jerky, then he used the hand sign for down. She offered him her right paw. He tilted his head and beamed a smile at his sweet girl and motioned her down again, she offered him her left paw. I saw him sigh just before motioning her down as he said, "You know this means down." I swear that dog batted her eyes innocently as she slowly lowered to a down.

The night before he had gotten her to crawl and he wanted me to see her do it tonight. He had been so proud of her, his sweet girl had done it for him. So here, I was peeking around the corner at her manipulating him. There she was with her ears back submissively, big brown eyes glistening, do dogs wear lip-gloss?

Any ways, Steve broke a small piece of chicken jerky off the big piece and held it in his good hand and held the larger piece in his other hand close to his chest. He held the piece of jerky out to her close to the floor, then made the sign for crawl and said crawl. She did it again, I know she did... that dog batted her eyes innocently and then looked away like she had no clue. Steve looked at me as if to say maybe she did not see me. I must have rolled my eyes because he huffed and then said CRAWL louder. Yuki stood up and started walk towards him.

Right away he got her back into a down. She hates down, always has .. unless there is mud to lie in, after all she is a white dog and white dogs always seem to love to be in mud! He tried again and she went up on all fours. This happened three or four more times. Each time she managed to get a little closer to him, to Steve and the chicken jerky.

Steve was determined she would do it this time. He knew I could not stand up much longer, I had been on my feet to long without a wheel chair. He held out the small piece of chicken jerky and said, "Crawl". It looked like she was going to do it. It really did. Yuki stretched her neck forward, leaning as if she was going to crawl; but instead, she got up on all fours, snuggled close to her beloved Master, wagging her big tail.

Her soft pink tongue licked his sore arm and hand; as if she knew how badly a torn rotator cuff and tendinitis felt. Then promptly that girl snatched the large piece of chicken jerky turned and went back to her rug; finished with all this crawling business leaving Steve holding the small piece with his mouth open, he could eat it if he wanted.