He has realized that his bed can be gutted, little by little. It's a cute bed sent by the breeder dierkings.com , with little bows of yarn jutting out of every third inch of fabric. Not the best design for a dog bed, because the yarny things become targets for tug-of-war when there's nothing else to do or when nobody wants to play with you anymore. Then the stuffing starts to come out and it's all downhill from there. It's like the first kill, Swanky gets extreme pleasure out of dismembering and removing the fluffy gut of the "animal", and if we're not careful, he could become fixated on anything that has fluff inside (pillows, stuffed animals, THE NEW MICROFIBER COUCH, etc.) So when he started acting like he was beating the tar out of this thing, I suggested it be taken away, never to be seen again.

We started the "down" command for food next. This was difficult for a few reasons; he almost never lays down in a straight line. Instead, he curls himself so tightly that he becomes a fourth of his normal size. Therefore, doing the regular "down" command was quite unnatural for him, so he put his chest to the floor and kept his teeny rump up in the air. At first, we rewarded that with the treat because, let's be honest, it was the best he could do. When we did some physical prompting (trying to gently force him into the position), he took it as a reason to start flitting around and getting distracted so we just kept guiding him with the food. Eventually, he got the motion of the position and looked semi-comfortable in the "down". We stopped there, leaving the homework assignment of repeating the protocol over and over and over and over so he could memorize it.

When I was saying my goodbyes, Swanky revealed to me that if he gets access to an ear, he will shove his entire tongue into it and frantically (but thoroughly) "clean" it out within 3 seconds. I have met other ear-loving dogs, but never one this emphatic and precise. I'm on the fence about whether that's a selling point for this dog or if it's something to be done only in the deep, dark night when nobody's around. I know it's not acceptable in certain social circles to allow a dog to do this, but he does it with such finesse that it has to be appreciated, even if you never vocalize it...