Teaching Your Dog to Bring in the Paper

 
 I'm waiting for the ground to thaw so that we can put in some lettuce seeds and spring onion sets. To relieve the waiting, I've trained our young female German Shepherd dog to bring in the newspaper. It's a task she enjoys, but sometimes, in her exhuberance, she likes to toss the paper about on the doorsteps and I have to shout at her to drop it. Nonetheless, we were very proud and amused with her unfailing capture of the newspaper out by the road and the efficient manner in which she would dash for the front door porch.

This newly learned behavior comes at a price, however. Mandy doesn't understand that all the newspapers in the neighborhood do not belong to us. While walking her this morning, she tried to collect the newspapers which lay in our neighborhood driveway and, judging by the way she looked at me when I told her "no", she thinks I am a reckless and irrational doggie owner.