A Lucky Puppy - And Bright, As Well

When we first told the grand kids that live here in Texas that we were likely to get a service dog, one of their first questions was 'What are you going to name him?'

I had actually been thinking about it and said that I was thinking of the name Pilot. They thought that that was a cool name, so I had a green light.

When we heard of the actual opportunity to adopt Cody, we we found that he already had a name and that left family members wondering how to teach a dog a new name. But I was fine with Cody and found it consistent with Pilot. In the forever long ago, there was a singing group called Commander Cody and The Lost Planet Airmen. Well Lost Planet Airmen need a pilot, and our Cody was just perfect for the job. So Cody remained Cody and Peace will win in the long run.

I promised mention of Cody's first command, and this might be a bit surprising.

When I was researching service dogs, I had never thought of the problem of dogs needing to go to the bathroom 'on command'. Turns out that they do. I mulled this over and thought of various strategies, since I was going to have to teach Cody to go to the bathroom, well, on command. I decided that I would use the command "Cody, Business"  and in the normal course of house breaking, teach Cody not to use the indoors and actually to use the outdoors on my prompt.

When we arrived at the house, I had Cody on leash, got him out of the car, and led him directly to grass and gave the command. I was totally shocked that Cody did exactly what I wanted him to do.

So all times when he is done eating, I immediately take Cody out of doors and there is no doubt whatsoever, that 'Business' is booming. So to speak.

Thank you for reading this and you are welcome to follow along in our adventure.

Someday soon, I will post a report on that 100% puppy issue mouthing or biting.