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So sorry for your loss she sounded very much loved.

Can I have the address too please.

We cut the bones out of our meat before it's cooked, then the dogs get the bones without the danger of it being cooked. Why not suggest to your parents that this is something they could do with the next roast if they would like your dog to have the bone. Alternatively a cooked bone boiled in water (discard bone) makes great stock, perfect for tasty icy kongs (use some peanut butter to plug the hole) or as giant ice blocks.

Brandy picked up 'touch fingers get a treat ' really quickly, she's amazing me how fast she is picking up new things now her confidence is increasing. Danile was convinced for a while that he had to hold up his right paw then touch my hand but not fingers with the side of his nose, but he does it really well now paw up or down I tried them with me in different positions to see if they definately knew what it was and they were great. Will keep practising at this level for a few more sessions while I label the behaviour and then we'll move on to targetting an object.

Brandy can shake! She's thrown herself into learning new things with an amazing amount of enthusiasm, shake just came together yesterday. Daniel is a star at shaking, when we got him he did it pretty much constantly, but now he does it when asked and sometimes offers it rather than all the time, so I taught him to stand on his back legs instead this week. With Brandy I held food in my right hand and bent down and picked up her right foot in my right hand and gave her the food while saying shake. After a few times she started lifting her paw slightly off the ground and I praised that and lifted it up, now she slams it into my hand *grin*

We did it!!!!!!!! I finally worked out that if I sit crosslegged on the floor with Brandy in a sit in front of me I can get the dropped treats before she does. We are eye to eye in this position and I hold the treat at arms length above her nose while she looks up, she caught it three times, a great start :D Thought that description might help someone else. As an added bonus Brandy was quite happily looking up in the kitchen, which sounds odd as a thing to be happy about but she has heaps of fears about overhead (ok ok not just overhead things) scary things particularly the kitchen ceiling it's good to see her looking up but not doing the constant worried looks.

I did this with the dogs and popcorn recently, Daniel caught each piece straight away, maybe he's played before (we've only had him 2 months) Brandy watched each piece fall to the floor then ate it. I did get quite good at hitting her nose. I'll try some more sessions with her and only let her eat any pieces she may catch. Will report back later in the week. I think the trick of the week idea is a great one.