Our neighborhood publishes a nice little newsletter each quarter.  The publishers (some neighbors) were asking for articles from anyone, including kids.  So I encouraged Jake to rewrite his end of year project into an article (he had done a sort of science fair project) and submit it. And he agreed.

Ok, I admit, I did ask him, but he wasn’t interested.  And since I had already told her that I’d get him to write something, she was sort of pressuring me, and I felt like I had to give her something.  So I rewrote Jake’s report into a readable something and sent it to her.  It did appear in the last newsletter and I reprint it here for your reading enjoyment.

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Can You Teach An Old Dog New Tricks?

This is Katy

By Jake Bush

I have been home schooled since I was in second grade. Having school at home can be a lot of fun, but we still have to do hard work.

Last year, when I was in fifth grade, and I had to do a big project about animals (kind of like a science fair project). I decided to see if I could teach my 4 year old dog, Katy, how to roll over. Everyone thinks Katy is very dumb but I know she is smart and I wanted to prove it by teaching her how to roll over.

Part of my project included researching how to teach dogs tricks. I looked at lots of websites, and read lots of books. I even watched dog training videos on YouTube. Once I figured out the methods I wanted to use, I started working with Katy every day.

To train her, I had to get her to sit, then to lie down, and then I told her to roll over as I passed the treat I had hidden in my hand sort of behind her head and over her back. As soon as she did the trick, I gave her the treat (see below). If she didn’t do the trick, I started over. It was hard at first, but she started to get the hang of it after a few days, and by the end of three weeks, she could do the trick on command.

I accomplished my purpose, which was to teach my dog a trick that she hadn’t learned before. I also accomplished my goal because Katy will now roll over even if she does not receive a treat.

This experiment taught me that you can teach an old dog a new trick, and that you can have fun while you do it.