Ruff Ruff Arooorooooroooo

Gimli will be 2(!!) on Saturday and while he has come very far in terms of his training, he's lacking on the barking.

Generally, he listens for sit/down/wait/stay/pray/rollie/kissy/touch/shake a paw/punch/ready to eat (what corgi doesn't listen to this last one), but we haven't mastered getting him to stop barking or to quiet down once he's started or even not to bark at all.

For example:

1) We have been in our house for 9 months now and Gimli knows our surroundings, he's met the neighbors and their children on either side of us. When we are outside and he hears them outside he doesn't bark. When he's inside and hears the same noises or sees them through the windows, he barks.

2) He barks, as expected, at other dogs walking in front of the house.

3) He barks at times when we sneeze and when we're playing fetch in the house. If we ask him to lie down and wait first, then he doesn't bark.

4) He doesn't bark when on walks. He's become much better in this area and when another dog barks at him, he softly woofs but it doesn't escalate from there. (Thank God!)

This leads me to the conclusion that he barks when he's excited and he barks when he feels he needs to protect the house from scary things, even though he's a big chicken. Don't tell him I said that.

These days, Mike and I catch him after the fact and make him move from the location to a different location. Meaning, if he's barking at the front, we either call him upstairs or move him into the living room so he (maybe) understands his behavior is unacceptable. If he's really ornery, he gets a timeout in the bathroom.

We'll get better... hopefully... in time...

In other news, I've lost the willpower and stopped my exercising :( I need to find it again.