Secret learns to blow bubbles!

Over a year ago, I watched a video on YouTube that showed "Dazzle" the Border Collie learning to blow bubbles. I'm a huge "Dazzle Fan" and am amazed at all the tricks she does. I decided that day that when I finally got a Border Collie, my Border Collie would also learn to blow bubbles!

The other night, David Letterman had his "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment and one of the featured dogs was a bubble blower! This was just what I needed to light a fire under me, so I stopped at Walmart on my way home from work yesterday and picked up a $5 glass bowl so that we could get to work on this trick.

The video above is the result! I had to crop it for length -- All told, we worked for a little under 20 minutes. Truthfully, a bit too long, but she was in the zone and I didn't want to quit. Watching the video back was very educational and interesting for me, as it was very clear to see areas where I failed to reward her efforts or was slow in my click. Even more interesting was to see the very clear signs that my failures started to shut her down! Definitely something I need to work to improve in myself.

In the end, even with my inadequacies as a trainer, we managed to be successful and Secret learned to blow bubbles. :o)

Just a quick update on the post below -- I apparently spoke too soon! The night I posted that, Secret slithered off the bed only minutes after we retired for the night, so into her kennel she went! The next evening I woke up when she slid off around 1:00 a.m., so again, back into her crate. Last night we tried again, only this time I closed the bedroom door to ward off any distractions. This worked, and she stayed on the bed all night. Unfortunately, she & Kaiser both felt the need to press firmly against either side of me all night, so I, as a result, got very little sleep. *sigh* We'll work it out one way or another. lol