Jin's New Trick

This week I decided Jin, after successfully mastering "sit," "bye bye," "down," and "hug," was ready to graduate to a new trick. I consulted my book of dog tricks, most of which I am not yet patient or confident enough to attempt, and decided that "spin" looked easy enough.

And it was. Within ten minutes Jin was consistently spinning in a circle to get a treat, and we've done it several times a day for the last few days to reinforce it. It's a really cute trick to show other people, too. Last night when Jonathan stopped in briefly after the opera to see Jin's new trick, Jin got so excited about a visitor (and probably also about the pepperoni I was holding in my hand) that he decided to show off and add a little bounce to his spin. Before he was just kind of walking in a circle.

This new trick is so cute, and I'm kind of sad that I can't show it off to my family. So this morning I thought I would try to capture it on video and post it on my blog. Jin likes this new trick so much that if I wait long enough with a treat in my hand without saying or doing anything, he will do a spin by himself in hopes of getting the treat. I tried to capture this at the end of the video, but we had already done a couple takes and I think he was getting impatient because he surprised me and yelped too. I gave him the treat anyway. Enjoy :)