07/04/2010 ~ He Speaks!

What a great gift I got this morning from Peabody!

Went out to see if he was awake and lifted a corner of his blanket. There he sat, face pressed to the bars of the cage, to see me. I dropped the blanket and giggled a bit at the silly boy ... then heard, as clear as could be, "Peek-a-boo?"

He was asking me to play with him! We did 'peek-a-boo' a few times (each time being rewarded with a pine nut) before he started to lose interest, so off came his blankie for the day.

He didn't speak (English) for the rest of the day, or the day after ... but it's all good. He's still coming right up to me to get a treat out of my hands and is responding well to the clicker, "come" and "step up" and is happy to spend lots of time riding around on my shoulder.

07/03/2010 ~ Baby steps

Judy used a clicker to train Peabody. I use a clicker with my dogs. But I don't know (yet) her techniques, nor does she know mine.

So I've decided to start at the beginning.

Spent time today "loading the clicker" with Peabody ... simply clicking and treating. (His most favorite thing so far is pignoli (pine nuts) so I am saving them for training treats). I've probably gone to his cage a dozen times today and opened the door and when he walked to the door, clicked and treated. He has no problem coming to the door for me.

So I stepped it up a notch ....

I'd ask him to "come" and when he did, click/treat. No problem.

I can totally screw this up by taking it too fast so I'm stopping here for a few days. Just "come"/click/treat. Hard to be patient but......

He's doing great!

Susan

07/02/2010 ~ The Wedding

My cousin's son got married in the afternoon and the party went on and on all evening .... I didn't get to spend nearly the time with Peabody as I would have liked. We left early and still didn't get home until 11 pm, several hours after P's "bedtime".

What was funny was that people were asking Kate about her plans, now that she has graduated from High School. She said that she was going to college and inevitably they'd ask where. When she replied "New Hampshire" they all looked at me and something like "Oh my, what are you going to do now mom?"

Without missing a beat Kate told them "Oh she's going to be fine. She's already got herself another child to replace me."

07-01-2010 ~ The Great Photo Shoot

It wasn't the best day but please, no one panic ... Peabody is just fine! However, last night at The Chance (Poughkeepsie, NY) my silly daughter left her almost brand new Nikon dSLR camera (along with a Nikon telephoto lens, camera case, battery charger, 2 UV filters, ....) unattended and it was stolen.

Yes, I'm sick. But not nearly as sick as she is so I'm bound and determined to not be mad at her for it.

The camera was a combination 18th birthday and High School graduation gift, and pretty much took every last (available) cent we had to get it for her.

Something like this pretty much happens to each of us at least once in our lives ... and it was Kate's turn I guess.

As she is going to college at the end of August for PHOTOGRAPHY we will somehow have to find a way to replace this equipment.

The last series of photos she took with the camera were all of Peabody, and can be seen at this link:

Peabody Photos

Best,
Susan