Dog swap

This week, Dempsey and Sawyer will be trading spaces: Sawyer will be staying with us, and Dempsey will stay with Sawyer's family.

I know it sounds like a reality show stunt, but there's a good reason for this. We're trying to get the dogs used to being in different environments and different schedules, working with different trainers. We don't think Dempsey is particularly rigid, but we wouldn't really know; he's always done things our way.

We brought Sawyer home today after class, and he settled right in. He was here for a few days in October, and incredibly, he remembers everything. I thought I'd have to show him around the house again, but no. He remembered where Dempsey's toybox is (first thing he went to find), where the water bowl is, and even where the bathroom is. I'm always amazed at how smart these dogs are.

We already miss Dempsey a little, but it's fun having his "twin" here. (Here's a pic of the two of them in October.) I'm looking forward to taking Sawyer to Dempsey's usual haunts to see if anyone notices that we've secretly replaced our dog with another, very similar one.



Anyone who's at home, however, would never mistake Dempsey for Sawyer. Although he's only been here a little bit, we were stunned to see that Sawyer can actually play by himself. Here's Sawyer playing by himself with a Frisbee:



Amazing! We can't have Dempsey out of our sight for a second without him getting into some kind of mischief. Dempsey always needs to be the center of attention -- sort of like a reality show contestant.