Funny comments

In January 2009, we brought home an adorable 5-week-old puppy. After a week, I started working with her on some tricks. Two weeks after that, I decided she was good enough for prime time so I posted this video of her on YouTube. (It's still there; click over a watch it if you'd like.) Since then this video has been viewed over 25,000 times (!!!) and several people have left comments. I wanted to show you this funny little exchange by a couple of commenters, months back:

why would you want to teach a puppy to play dead
mattmax11 1 year ago

@mattmax11 Is there something wrong with playing dead?
WikkiWooYeah 10 months ago

@WikkiWooYeah when theres this young YES
mattmax11 10 months ago

@mattmax11 Help me understand the reasoning behind this. Why is it wrong when they are his young?
WikkiWooYeah 10 months ago

@WikkiWooYeah because they should be having fun and not learning things
mattmax11 10 months ago

@mattmax11 Well, firstly, let's establish that the dog isn't aware of the "dead" part of the trick. Just laying still. For a working dog, having a sense of purpose is a requirement - training them like this gives them a "job." Retrievers are hunting dogs and as such, they love having jobs. The owner is establishing a dominant role as well.
That said, the puppy is definitely having fun here! She looks thrilled to be doing all those tricks.
(Sing it WikkiWooYeah!)

Don't you love all the "experts" out there on the internet? I have other commenters saying that that puppies shouldn't be taught to "jump" because it causes hip dysplasia (maybe so but excuse me, puppies are going to jump whether you teach them to or not), and one said that I shouldn't be training her with cheese because it will give her diarrhea and/or too much sodium. (But that low-fat cheese is fine.) Most of the comments are quite nice and friendly. This one made me laugh:

I have a 9 week old black lab and he can do soooooo much more than the one in this video. He can sit, shake hands, speak, pull up plants in the garden, eat stones and snails and get me up 3 times a night so that he can go out for a wee and a pooh. Today he helped me do some plumbing work by biting me on the back of the head whilst I was laying under the sink. He can also totally ignore me apart from when I have a puppy chew in my hand. Beat that for a well trained Labrador puppy!


In other news, seeing these old pics & video of Juno makes me want to get another puppy! She sure was a cute one, and so much fun. (Although I must admit that the current phase we're in, where she lays around all day and I don't have to worry about her destroying everything in sight, is a pretty nice phase too.)