A Happy Bandit Post

As I've said many times, Bandit was a great dog.  He had the perfect personality for my kids--sweet, loving, manipulative.  He could con my daughter out of food and my son into walking him pretty much any time he wanted.

He was also an extremely atheletic dog--it was in his Border Collie genes.  He could play soccer, blocking balls and dribbling them.  He was very fast and always willing to "give up the body".  I had to train my kids to be careful where they threw Bandit's toys (for him to catch/fetch) because he would run through a table to make a catch (and not appear to feel it or even notice).  He could catch almost anything.

Except food.  Every dog I've ever had could catch food thrown to them.  But not Bandit.  If I tossed him a bit of bacon, he'd suddenly turn into "shaky-the-mohel" (Seinfeld reference) and lose his coodination.  He wouldn't even try to catch it...he'd just look awkward trying to get out of the way.  Once it hit the ground he was all over it.  But in the air?  Nope!  Tennis balls?  Sure.  Any one of his many toys?  He'd do whatever he could to catch them in the air.

But I could never teach him to catch food--or put his toys away. 


PS - My wife and daughter were the easiest touches for food, but Bandit was always polite about it--he was never pushy, he just looked at them.  In fact, he was so polite about it, one night my wife didn't think twice about putting her plate on a chair while she went out to get something from her car.  When she came back her hamburger was gone.  She left the house, so Bandit assumed she was done.  LOL!