On charging the clicker and red nose pit bulls

First, the clicker. Celeste will be starting the much-anticipated OBEDIENCE class next Tuesday. The teacher likes clickers. I'm ambivalent about the devices; they *are* great for marking wanted behaviors, but they're also one extra thing that I don't need to be toting around.

I have a few lying around the apartment from my days of clicker training rats and dogs and making a valiant attempt at clicker training a mouse. Mina, the pit bull, is firm in her belief that clickers are for losers, hence why she feels the clicker is perfectly acceptable for Celeste.

These past few days I've been charging the clicker. I click, drop a treat for Celeste. Click, hand her a treat. Rinse, wash, repeat. Now I click and she comes a running, her stomach telling her brain TREATS NOW! We're already at the point where she does a watch before I click and treat. She's very food motivated, which makes clicker training easier....at the same time, she's a little TOO in to the food. Her movements are more reminiscent of a chicken being clicker-trained, all jerky and instantaneous. I can only hope I'm clicking for the right thing. Celeste doesn't care so long as something she does garners her a cookie. That's why I love her alright. :)

Okay, now on to dem red-nose pit bulls. I call the apartments where I live the halfway house. It's a big 'old victorian house separated into individual apartments. To be honest, I love the place; it's across from the park and downtown, it's affordable for the area, and it gets a lot of light, staying extra warm during the winter (I hate cold). Plus it allows dogs, including pit bulls. That it also seems to attract some sketchy characters is, I suppose, to be tolerated.

Anyway, I had the dogs out for a potty break. One of my neighbor's approached me and this conversation ensued.

Neighbor (N): Is that a red nose?!?
Me (Me): Huh?
N: A red nose.
Me: Oh, she's a pit bull, if that's what you mean.
N: No, no, no, I mean a red nose. You know, RED nose. I have one, with a red nose.
Me: *gazes fondly at Mina* Well, to be honest, it's actually pink.
N: What?
Me: Her nose. It's pink.
N: I haven't heard of a pink nose.
Me: *shrug*

I used to just say yes to the "is she a red nose" question, because I get it so frequently and "yes" is less taxing on my nerves than a discourse on nose coloration not being an indicator of a separate breed. I feel like I should have Mina wear a sign, "Why yes, my nose *IS* red, do you want a cookie for that observation?" Mina is a pit bull. With a rose-pigmented nose.

It's pink, really.