My daddy was trying to think of something practical to teach me to do. He had read before that doggies like to have a job, so he wanted to teach me something I could do around the house. He said I’m smart, but he didn’t want to teach me something that would take a couple weeks to learn, so he decided to teach me to close the door.

My daddy pretty much knew how to teach me this on his own because he taught me how to ring bells to go outside to potty. He figured it wouldn’t be that hard of a trick for me to learn.

He started out tying a piece of rope around the door knob and then he held it for me to put in my mouth. At first I didn’t really want it and then he told me to “take it” so I put it in my mouth. Then he gave me a treat. He did this a couple of times before I got tired of having him hand it to me and I decided to just grab it myself. I may have gotten some extra treats this way. 😉

My daddy used his clicker for most of this training because he thinks I learn a little faster with it.

After I was consistent at putting the rope in my mouth, daddy guided me to pull the door shut. He said “come”, but I usually left the rope go and then just went to him. I didn’t get any treats for this. 🙁

My daddy thought how can I get Sadie to understand what I want? He had me take the rope and then guided me back to pull the door a little. Then he clicked and I got a treat! 🙂

After doing this a couple times, I caught on and started pulling the door more and more-he started waiting to click until I pulled it shut more. Now I shut it just about all of the way. Check out this video of me practicing.

My daddy is really happy with how well I’m doing. It didn’t take me that long to learn what I’m supposed to do, but my daddy still wants me to shut the door all of the way.

Since recording the video, we have switched out the rope for bandanas because they are one piece and I kept wanting to chew the rope. My daddy also decided to have me close the bathroom door instead of the one to my room because I was closing the door and not able to get my water and food (don’t worry, I only did this while he was home so I could get treats for practicing, I didn’t starve or anything like that).

I’m going to keep working on my new trick so I can impress my family and start doing chores at home.