Pooches: On Coyote and Roadrunner "Training Techniques"

Through all the training classes we've gone to with the pups, sometimes the most traditional methods just don't work.

See, our Mr. B....isn't quite that smart.

Maybe it's in comparison to Miss M who is a regular circus dog, but traditional training methods don't quite work with Mr. B. After all these years, he's still confused about the difference between sit and down. Sure he doesn't need to be a trick dog, but we still needed to teach him some basics. So we've been training him through the Art of Surprise.

It started when he would get anxious when we left the home. We would try to confuse him, opening and closing doors, playing a soundtrack of our voice, and sometimes popping out of closets. He stopped equating certain cues with us leaving. And maybe thought he was never alone because we could pop out of anywhere.
Then it evolved. He started to become comfortable and do things he would never do if we were home. Like go on the couch.  A few times I would lay in wait behind the kitchen counter, waiting for him to go near the couch, then pop up to surprise him. Though he takes a joke well.

Though, these techniques don't quite work with Miss M. When we were bachelorettes together, I had a little rug in my bedroom where Miss M would sleep at night. I started to suspect she would leave the bedroom in the middle of the night, sleep on the couch, and come back before I woke up. One night I decided to set a trap. I made a pillow body on my bed (ala: Ferris Bueller).

I put a comforter on the couch and hid underneath. I thought I could wait for Miss M to try sneaking onto the couch, and I would pop up and scare her. I waited, and I must have fallen asleep. That morning I thought I needed to apologize to Miss M, but when I went to my bedroom I found the comforter on my bed rumpled, and some stray brindle hairs....

Have you ever been outsmarted by your own dog?

Also:
Clever!
Or is she?
He just keeps trying