For the last year and a half, we've searched for the right words to get JoJo to to relieve herself when we take her out. I was instructed by no less an authority than Dahlin' Daughta that the Phrase That Pays is "go potty". While this may work wonders with toddlers, old folks and Republican Members of Congress, it left JoJo totally unmoved. In every known sense of the word.
About a week ago, with JoJo at the other end of the leash and "go potty" having no effect whatever, I turned to the recalcitrant mutt and said, "JoJo, take a whiz."She took about five steps, squatted, squeezed, and complied. Repeated experiments have delivered positive results more than eighty percent of the time, compared with a less than twenty percent response with the weasel words.
Clearly, then, dogs both understand and act upon terms we're told are not to be used in polite company. Dogs are, evidently, not polite company, and are therefore to be preferred to human company under all but the most dire circumstances.
It figures. Dogs are not hesitant to pass gas, burp or perform other functions when the impulse hits.
Posted by: Jan | March 30, 2010 at 11:59 PM