Educating Groucho

A few months after The Rescue and after Groucho's take over of our home, we decided it was time that Groucho learnt some manners. Westies are very energetic terriers and, if allowed, will rule the lives of everyone around them! So, we decided that Groucho the Wonder Westie needed to use his super canine powers to learn some manners and some fun tricks as well! Fortunately, we had a very lovely person come to our home to teach us how to channel those super canine powers - Julie from tagnrye. Please visit Julie here.

At first, Groucho strongly resisted being told what to do by Julie - after all, with his cute little face and wonderful personality, Groucho was quite used to getting his own way all the time! But, after a period of extended sulking behind the couch (we never realised that one of Groucho's super canine powers was an ability to sulk, without let up, for over 30 minutes!), Groucho finally realised that if he learnt some manners and tricks, he would be rewarded with a treat and Groucho never says no to a treat! After a little while, Groucho caught on to this whole tricks and manners malarky and really started to enjoy himself!

'Sit' was a bit of a doddle but 'Deck', 'Paw', 'Up' and 'Settle' took longer! We had homework every day and after a few months, Groucho was really into his homework routine and learning more and more tricks. The next time Julie visited, Groucho was more than happy to show off his new skills and learn some more! We are very happy that Julie helped us out and Groucho still enjoys some homework now and then, learning some new tricks, brushing up on his old ones so many thanks to Julie for all her help and hard work (oh yes, and patience with both Groucho and us!). What we have to constantly remember is that, while Groucho is very clever, he doesn't really understand human talk so we had to teach Groucho what certain words mean and reward him when he did the right thing! And Groucho is just so proud of himself when he works it out!!

We were very proud of Groucho when he worked out that he had to sit down at the traffic signals and wait for the little green man to signal it was ok to cross the street! Of course, at the other side of the street, the first thing Groucho did was demand his treat for being such a clever dog! And Grouch, with is super canine powers, quickly worked out that if he did 'roll over' when he was told, not only did he receive a treat but also a big rub on the tummy which of course, Groucho thinks is just the best thing. Tummy rubs are Groucho's favourite!

Groucho is currently putting his super canine powers towards learning some new tricks - 'Wait', 'High Five', 'Stand' (now, this is not as simple as it sounds!) and 'Gentle' and, oh yes, 'Enough' which we use when we want Groucho to just stop being bold! All in all, educating Groucho is great fun - both for him and us and it certainly makes life easier for us all. It is better for everyone if Groucho can understand what we want him to do and it is very important for Groucho to know how to behave when he's out and about on his travels and when he's socialsing with all his friends! And being such a clever little Westie, teaching Groucho to channel his super canine powers into learning tricks and manners is something he enjoys!

Groucho and Gypsy Dog

Groucho has a friend called Gypsy Dog. Please visit Gypsy Dog here.

Please check back here soon for photos of Groucho and Gypsy Dog playing together.

Smile - It's Groucho

Groucho is such a clever little dog. Groucho likes to work things out for himself, he loves learning new things to keep his mind occupied. We put some of his home-made treats into his toy and Groucho has worked out that if he shakes it around and throws the toy into the air, the food will fall out. When Groucho grows tired of doing this he rolls the toy under the couch and pretends he cannot get it back out. Groucho waits for someone to get it for him and to throw it - hoping that more food will fall out.

Groucho has made lots of new friends since he moved to Dubai. Groucho loves meeting his friends while he is out on one of his walks around the lake near where he lives. Groucho the Wonder Westie of the Western World seems to make just about everyone he meets smile. This is probably Groucho's most important super canine power - the ability to make people smile.

Back to the City

So, after a wonderful week in the country, Groucho returned to his city dog life and back to his home which he loved - it was much better than where he lived before The Rescue and our home was definitely being taken over by Groucho the Wonder Westie.

From our patio, Groucho could look out over a river (which he jumped into many times!), two bridges, a large field (more on that later!), a public walkway and the back of the largest cemetry in Ireland (which sounds a bit spooky but it wasn't at all !), so Groucho had a great time, sitting out on the patio, little black nose pressed to the glass, watching the world go by. Sometimes, he would chase the magpies because they always tried to take his food! Unfortunately, Groucho's super canine powers did not extend to flying after them so he had to be happy with just barking very loudly!

Because there was no grass on the patio, Groucho had his own sand pit in which he buried his treats. We didn't realise one of Groucho's super canine powers was an ability to dig at very fast speeds and the first day, more sand ended up on the patio than in the actual sand pit! Groucho was also given one corner of the patio for his own - and we dumped potting soil there so he could dig, bury and all that doggy stuff and it was always very funny when he buried something there, as his little white face would be covered with black sand!

Groucho took over the living room, taking up one cushion of the couch for himself and also a fair amount of floor space! Because Groucho, like most terriers, is very energetic, he needed quite a bit of sleep to prepare for all his adventures and was often found fast asleep on the couch. Groucho also liked to snuggle and would often sit next to us and roll over on his back for a scratch on his tummy. Every night, after his dinner, Groucho wanted his 'play attack' and we would have to chase him around the living room, the patio or take him out on to the grass and chase him around the trees.

Groucho had a lot of friends in Dublin and was very well known. Groucho was particularly popular with the kids who would come up to the patio to visit him. One of Groucho's other super canine powers was an ability to be very friendly to everyone and most dogs although he was a bit scared of cats!