Wait, edit that - My kids let me do fun things too!

Who needs a dog when you can do that!

Freaking hysterical! Your dog totally makes me want a dog! Also, is that Jon laughing! He has an infectious laugh. As if you don't already know that!!

Oh, Chuck's such a handful. But so cute and sweet. I'm about a year away from having a dog again - looming life changes. I miss my late sweet pooches, and enjoy all the vicarious dog-therapy I can find. Friends' and neighbors' dogs, and of course online the Hon. Chuck. Thanks.

ah, a dogs life...... i'm jealous. i would roll over for food all day long and then lick my crotch and sleep for the rest of the afternoon

aww gorgeous!
I'd love another dog :)

Hey Heather, has anyone ever told you that your voice sounds kinda like Charlize Theron?

Dooce on sister!

Hey, can you post on how you make the flash file? It looks really slick!

Poor little Chuck! He looks so cute trying so hard for some food, it breaks my heart. Go Chuck!

he half-rolled! my dog half-rolled! And he only got the half that was audio -- if he coulda seen the vid he might have gone all the way over! Don't know why I cant'see your videos.

Man, it made ME roll over.

Ahahhaha! I tried to teach Mouse to roll a few years ago and gave up when I started getting calls from PETA. We finally compromised - instead of roll I'd say Bang! And he'd fall over dead... essentially the half-assed roll that Chuck is doing.

Except now he half asses THAT. I say Bang! And the little punk doesn't even lay down. He just kind of leeeeans over to one side like I am seriously that fucking stupid.

Oh man, I wish Chuck was my dog. What a badass!!

That was awesome, I almost felt like nudging him over myself after those half-attempts. Your hair really does look fabulous by the way, especially in the About The Site page.

Your dog and mine MUST be comparing notes. My dog does a half-assed rendition of "speak" where he believes that just by opening his mouth and making his teeth click as he closes it will suffice as the proper execution. Too funny!

Your dog and mine MUST be comparing notes. My dog does a half-assed rendition of "speak" where he believes that just by opening his mouth and making his teeth click as he closes it will suffice as the proper execution. Too funny!

seriously. I think Chuck and Sadie are twins separated at birth. Because Sadie does the same thing. Or sometimes she'll do another trick, like barking or raising her paw instead. As a distraction technique. Like "roll over? are you SURE you didn't mean 'shake?' 'cause I got your shake RIGHT HERE!"

We are die hard Chuck fans here. And demand many more videos of Chuck being adorable obstinate.

Oh man. I'm totally feeling Chuck on this.

If you were to hold a pan of food in front of me and then ask me to do a trick, I'd get so fucking excited at the possibility of getting to lick the pan, that I'd go batshit crazy on the inside and totally be incapable of concentrating in order to get the trick right.

I'm just sayin...

My cat does not roll, so Chuck has him beat. However, the cat does flop on the ground on command. If I tell him "Flop", all 18 pounds of him goes to the ground in a head-first semi-barrel roll.

I should get *that* on video.

That was awesome. Depending on the sauce, I might roll, too. A much needed chuckle (no pun intended), thank you. My favorite part was the sneer.

Awesome! For a second, I thought, "hey, wouldn't it be funny if she posted audio of Jon's couch-shaking farts" but that probably would be a bit much :)

Just when I thought I couldn't love Chuck more... The thought of the possibility of the spaghetti around the nose trick... Sheer joy.

what are you doing?

there may be lead in that pan, heather....LEAD!!!!

Just kidding. If your parenting (to both child and dog) is neglectful and irresponsible, then I hope to be as neglectful and irresponsible as you one day.

You can see Chuck smiling each time he 'attemps' his roll (I, too, smileeach time my husband tells me to roll). He knows exactly what he is doing...just as you do in everything you write. You have trained your little K9 well. And I wait for more. I think you are good. Really good.

I love that he makes the chupacabra face while he is doing it...or not doing it

I think my favorite part is how he bares his teeth and grunts everytime, like he's mad at himself that he can't quite get it and, "damnit, just give me the fucking pan already, woman!!"

oh dear god, i love it. love it, love it, love it.
the utter excitement oh his face. i can hear the internal commentary "did ya see it? did ya see it? huh? huh? huh?"
the sorta-roll-and-flip-back move is very suave.

That is fucking awesome.

I laughed heartily.

for some reason, i expected your voice to be higher and blurb's to be lower. chuck was everything i had hoped for and more.

The manly giggling in the background is the best part.

My dogs all started barking when I played it. It was like a cheering section or something. They were too busy looking around trying to find the stranger in the house to notice that you were holding a pan of food. Guess that goes to prove they really don't watch the TV we leave on for them.

I too like the chupacabra face that the excited dog makes. So excited, he only has the patience for half a roll -- as if he is saying, can we get this trick business over with, so that I can clean up this pan and then retire to the basement for my evening meditation and transcendental poetry?

I enjoyed this video immensely. I think it may be the combination of the effort and the final reward of cooking grease- Chuck is one adorable dog. :)

go Chuck! We are big fans of Chuck here.

Jon totally has the greatest laugh. I think I played the video a couple of extra times just because Jon's laugh made me laugh.

that was ever so cute :) keep that up and he'll be getting the full roll in no time. of course, this is funnier. :)

Hi heather. I've read the previous post and was upset by it. Miserable people with nothing better to do than gripe. This post, for the moment, helped me to forget them. I always end up in hysterics reading what you write.

I miss my dogs. Funny, I think all dogs think they can trick us with the fake rollover trick.

Great trick! If only my dog would not consider himself too good to try it. He does respond to his own version of sign language though--that's always a fun party trick!

He did it! Good for you, Chuck. My dog Dobbs only does the half-roll and he makes it look like it's killing him to do it.

On the plus side, we've trained him to drop and do the half-roll when we make our hands into a gun, point it at him, and yell, "Bang! Bang!" That's got to count for something, right?

Can we request more Chuck videos? This is the next best thing to a real dog. In fact, it may be better. No poop. No responsibilities. No poop. We love Chuck at my house. He is our favorite pet ever.

Can I have some of Chucks Hair or slobber or somthin so I can clone him?? He ROCKS!

we let our dog Jadie lick our dishes too... hey saves on prerinsing... not cause we arelazy or anything... but because we're trying to conserve water for the environment... yeah that sounds good...

oh we also dress her up in random funny outfits, take pictures, and pimp her out online too.

I love hearing your guys' laughs in the videos. They're the kind of laughs that make you smile and laugh out loud, then look around to make sure noone in the other cubicles heard you.

We had that trouble with our dogs too; we always assumed that the issue with a full roll was that they had to break eye contact with the treat, and thus it might disappear. Chuck looks just as funny "talking himself into it" as ours did : )

my dream for a brighter future..... daily video of Chuck.

oh... and way to rock the new hair.

your accent is almost imperceptible in that clip! ;-)

and you can't hear chuck's AT ALL.

Dooce you F#ck#ng Rock!!! I would normaly say the real F word, but I would hate for the idiots out there to take it wrong and send you MORE stupid hate mails. I have been a fan of yours since I read the Glamour Mag with you in it, and sometimes the things you say makes my jaw drop, but thats just one of the reasons I come back everyday for my Armstrong Family Fix. I have your website link on my personal website so everyone I know will check you out! I love chuck, I love hearing everything about Leta, and think she's just adorable, my son is 3, and they would be great friends, he doesnt eat food either! like everyone else has commented already, Jon's laugh IS great, and you do sound like Charlize Theron. Keep up the awesome work!

Ok, where's your Southern accent Dooce? Or, maybe I can't detect it b/c I'm Southern. You won't believe me, but I'm going to tell you anyways.

My son (he's 4)and I were trying to teach our dog how to roll-over just today. I swear to God we were. So, it's funny that you posted this.

Later.
The Piglet

That is so cute and funny. It's a bit alarming when the pan comes into view at the end of the video. It looks huge and it gives the impression you were threatening Chuck with it the whole time and he's performing the trick under duress. LOL

Chuck is so cute, mutts are the best! I bet he has the softest ears too. I love dog ears.

(Yes, I know, I have issues.)

He is just adorable. I LOVE when you do videos on here.

when i played that josh the dog jumped and stared at the laptop. he doesn't even know how to roll over and was ready to go.

true story by the way.

My dog knows loads of tricks, but always gives up on roll over. I think they find it quite hard to do unless there's badger poo lying around somewhere.

Maybe you should get some badger poo?

I don't have a dog, but my six month old rolled over a few times while I was watching.

My dachshund was sitting next to me while I watched the video. She looked at me as if to say "oh no, don't even think about it." Then she walked off to shred a piece of paper.

Hilarious!

I'm truly amazed. My dog can play dead. That's about all the cool animal tricks I have.

Now, I'm going out on a limb here and tagging you with a meme. I know, ridiculous. But, it can never hurt to ask.

You guys are too darn cute.

The two parts of the video are Chuck's tail, just going nutso, and Jon's laugh, which is totally infectious. I love it!

Well then perhaps my cat is part dog because I can get her to sit for treats. Never a dull moment with Chuck around, eh?

That was flippin adorable. thanks.

Someone in the comments said that Chuck is "da bomb." Untrue, because, of course, Chuck is the shit.

I'm at work right now where my computer has no sound, so I couldn't hear any of the "ROLL" commands. I could, however, see the look on Chuck's face that said "There, I kinda twitched into something resembling a roll, that should be good enough, now where's my treat?"

Wonderful. I'm still laughing. Thanks, Heather.

Maybe it's your accent? Who knew "Roll" sounded funny in southern?

My dog will spin, thinking I don't notice the plane of travel difference.

And, I caught Chuck's version of the middle finger flash, did yoU? Nice teeth,Chuck.

My dog's name is Charley.

Heather your page is such a treat. I just returned from vacation, and was reading you and admiring your flower shots in Denmark. I'm so totally hooked, love the heat, the doggy roll, all. Would dig a pic of Chuck's snout restrained by a strand of spaghetti. Maybe Leta can create a ziti-weiner necklace?

I see your Chuck and I raise you a Wilbur. Wilbur is my 12 week old english sheepdog. I think teaching him to roll over would be the equivilant of me becoming a math scholar. I love the fact that Chuck has this laissez-faire attitude of being cool. He doesn't have to work at it - it's just there.

Hiya Dooce, and all my other commenting friends. Loved the video, and also the craziness on display yesterday from the kooky emails you receive. I have a Rottie-mix pound pooch who is totally sweet, but has separation anxiety (read: looks like he took a chainsaw to the woodwork when we've been away). We have diligently gotten him to be crate trained and although things are MUCH better, his S.A. still makes our ability to train him tough (but we are working on it.) Anyways, any trick a dog can do is pretty dang amazing to me. Good work!

For some reason, I couldn't see the video (either one) at home last night. I'm so glad I tried again (at work) this morning. Chuck is SO adorable, even if he does try to fake you out with the half-roll. It's no wonder he has such a tremendous internet following.

Dog tricks are fantastic. Even better when the dog tries to trick you into thinking he did the trick. My brother had trained one of our dogs to put herself in the corner if she did something bad via the command "Get in the corner!" We had a designated corner too. Eventually, she would go in the corner without the command, so we'd have to search the house to see what she did "wrong" (usually an accident or tearing something up). A dog with a guilt complex...gotta love it.

Awesome, next on to diaper changing for Chuck.

Damn, I am just totally screwed here. Sounds funny as hell, but can't see anything again. Didn't get to see the ice cream video and can't see this one.

Can someone please help me?

Oh, that is too cute. Is he edible? I want to eat him up!

Love him. LOVE him!

Dear Heather,

I will pray for you...and John...and Leta...and now Chuck.

Love,
D-mode

Ha! Chuck reminds me of my dog...we tell him to sit, and he lowers the front half of his body onto the floor with his ass in the air, tail wagging like crazy.

At least he's got it halfway right, I guess.

What a silly woofer.

The difference difference between cats and dogs is that if you tell a cat to do something 15 times in a row and they actually do it, you are pleasantly surprised and begin to think that your cat may be a genius. Probably the same as with a toddler.
Although we're pretty sure that one of our cats is mildy retarded, so she gets a pass.

LOL! My dog does the EXACT Same thing. It takes about 3-7 attempts to get her to execute the "Roll Over" Thing. Shes a 5yr old Border Collie/Beagle Mix and a complete brat.

Chuck is entierly to cute for his own good. =)

Bisket, God bless her gentle soul, could give people High-Fives!
Being 13, I thought this dog was the ONLY dog in the world who could do that.

Then I taught her the awesome trick of picking, with her paw, which hand the treat was in.
I'd hold both fists out in front of me and ask, which one?
And she'd sniff both furiously over and over again, until she was content with her choice and proceeded to slap which hand she thought the treat was in.

Then of course I got older and more cynical and started rubbing the treat smell on one hand (with no treat in sight) and would make her choose.

The disapointment in those sad brown eyes when I opened my fist to reveal no treat would be enough to make Jesus cry.

Oh man, I heart Chuck. If you ever need a dog-sitter...in Texas...let me know!

I finally joined so that I could start leaving comments (like you need any more with all of the ones you have already) Chuck rocks. He's the best dog. He is so patient and so funny. Your pictures are the best. Now...about all that crap yesterday.

Here is what I think.....if people don't like your site then they don't have to READ IT. HELLO...it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how ignorent they sound. They take the time to write you this big long nasty comment about how much they hate you and I'm thinking well take your sorry asses to some other web site that isn't NEARLY as entertaining and go fuck off! That's it in a nutshell.

I like your words
Your sense of humor
your husband and his cute laugh
your daughter and her delightfully beautiful soul
your dog and your life.

You entertain me and make most days a little brighter by what you share. I applaud you for letting people into your life. The rest of them can disappear.

I loves me some Chuck!

And as for the previous day's post - well, that was some funny shit.

And I can't wait to see the new masthead about sweaty goat balls!!!!!!

Yes, but he's so eager to please... how can you knock it? He's adorable.

I always thought having a dog was like having a retarded younger brother. The love is there, but the faculties aren't and that's OK. As a kid, I used to watch "Lassie" with my dog in the hopes that he would view it as an educational program and perhaps learn something... like a canine version of Sesame Street: "Roll! Over! Roll-Over!" Watching a show about a "wonder-dog" made me realize that it's not the DOG that's amazing - it's the owners. I mean... "Bark! Bark-Bark!" - "what's that? Timmy's trapped in the abandoned mine shaft?".... Seriously. So I never felt so bad that the only trick my dog ever learned involved licking himself.

Then my sister got a cat. That cat quickly learned to fetch, come when he was called, sit, "raise the roof" and roll over.

Then I realized my friend's dog could count and spell. I think I saw him on Jeopardy.

I have come to accept the fact that my pets will never be able to DO... just BE.

*(ps - my sister's cat does her taxes now)

You know you're spoiling us! Now, we're going to expect it to be "Chuck Video Friday." Remember when the only videos available on television were "Friday Night Videos?" Ooops...wait, maybe I'm showing my age there...

At any rate - LOVE YOUR DOG! And the photo today is just too cute. Gotta see that in the 2007 calendar, for sure.

Thanks for really making it a Good Friday!

Hugely entertaining - but how does he stay so skinny when he is eating the sauce-grease? *grin* Maybe you should start to post your recipes?
PS your hair looks great.

Too Cute!

These comments are a great help! Everyone is talking about their pets, and in turn giving me name ideas for our new dog.
We're getting a male black lab in a month and need help finding a good name for him. My husband is all about BRUCE, ROCKY, and MAGIC.
I like names that are a little more enduring!! Right now I like OZZIE, HOMER, and RUDY.

Any suggestions Heather?? Or DOOCE readers??

this is only mildly related to this video, but my fiance is playing harvest moon ( for the gamecube ) and went ahead and named his pet puppy in the game after chuck. he picked the little puppy with the pointy ears just so he could name him accordingly.

and comment 168, mack's mom, name him cash. as in johnny, as in the man (lab?) in black.

My supermutts, Frances and Ivan (after the hurricanes we found them in), have a "routine" that they do. They're pretty smart and know lots of tricks (although roll isn't one of them). Whenever we have a treat for them, we ask them to do a trick. But it's not just one trick, it's all of them. We could say 'sit', 'down', 'hiogh five', 'low five', 'put up your dukes' or whatever, it doesn't matter because regardless of what you say, they just do all of their tricks in succession. It's almost a routine they put on. Sit - lay down - sit up - left paw - right paw - speak - stand...now give us the treat dammit!!!!!! Chuck's the man, you are very lucky. My life wouldn't be nearly as fulfilling without my dogs.

That was hilarious!

I suddenly feel so much better knowing that I'm not the only person who has to say a command ten times to get one trick out of my dog.

Oh my goodness, he reminds me of my dog. Sometimes he's so excited by the prospect of recieving a TREAT that he FLINGS himself to the floor as if he can't roll over fast enough. Other times he tries to cheat and do the half roll aren't I cute thing. In either case, he keeps his eyes absolutely fixed on the precious treat. Dogs are awesome.

Ha! My dog is a total spaz, she spins around in a cricle frantically before rolling over, so we changed the command to "what do you do when you're on fire?" It is too cute.

I love hearing your voice Heather. It adds something to your writing. It's funny how much essence of a person is captured in voice. I am a nurse and take care of patients who are critically ill, sometimes on ventilators and unable to speak. Despite all the the 'intimate' encounters we share in their dialy care, I feel like I never knew a thing about them them as a person until I could hear them speak. Many times my impression was changed by the first sentence uttered.
Thanks for sharing.

Oh my god! That poor tortured beast! It's animal cruelty! How could you heartlessly harass him into performing those unnatural contortions! You're putting his spine at risk. Also didn't you know that spaghetti sauce is POISON to dogs? The canine liver can't handle all the tomato toxins. Everyone knows that. Why don't you just squirt cyanide solution down his throat and be done with it? I'm calling the ASPCA right now.

What a GOOD BOY!!!

I envy your dog's ambition and his brains. My dog is extremely lovable, but the poor dear is not graced with a very apt mind. Whenever I begin to rub her she rolls onto her back so that I can scratch her belly. She becomes so immersed in the feeling of the belly rubbing that she forgets to breathe. When she realizes that "Hey, I'm going to die," she quickly rolls over and coughs and hacks a few times. Five minutes later she goes back for more belly rubbin' love and forgets to breathe again. I still love her though. :D

My dog only does what I say if the weather is just right, the bowel movement was the precise number of moments ago, and there's bacon in my hand. Then she'll crawl on her belly to get the bacon, but only if I crawl too. I'm not sure who is getting who to do the trick.

Ah Veronica, I do hope you are kidding around. Our three dogs roll around all the time when they are playing with each other (excepting the puppy). Our vet assured us that dogs in the wild roll around all the time. Look up the "alpha roll" and then you can relax, chuck's spine is fine. :)

And today's picture! Sooooooooooo adorable. Tres Chuck. Looks like his puppy pictures.

I think he gets points for the next-to-last try, because he would have done it if he hadn't smacked into the cabinets.

My dog was abandoned four times before he got to me, and apparently one of his former owners frowned on barking. When I tell him to speak, he looks at me like "you're kidding, right?" the first three times or so.

At least he finally did it. My dog looks at me like, "Who do you think you are to tell me to do stupid tricks for your amusement? Don't know you that I have better things to do with my time, like lick the area where my balls used to be?"

Your dog IS my dog - only Lucy has gotten to the point where she gets so excited and upset that she just tries to roll over no matter what command we give, and she still can't quite get it. That's an amazingly familiar half-roll.

I think you just got all three of my cats to roll over before Chuck did. Good job!

I love it.
I love that he simi rolled two times and actually thought that would achieve him the sauce pan.
I love that Jon started cracking up after the first half roll.
I love that he was actually trying to eat the air out of excitement for the pan.
I love that when he completed the roll, HE GOT THE WHOLE SAUCE PAN.
I just love it.
Love the hair too!

Your pandering to me again, I love it when you do that!

Dear lord!! Sophie (my 4 yr. old) laughed her ass off all three times she saw it.

Good dog!

Isn't that the great thing about dogs? They do what we say even when they don't want to.

so cute! I have a minpin that I can't teach to do anything. I tried to get him to "shake hands" and it just got to the point where he now lifts his paws when he wants a treat.

My dog Tuck would say "I love you". I miss him.

Thanks for the very very cute video!

Scrolling alllll the way down... You're never going to read this Dooce!

When my parents divorced my dad 'inherited' a cat - details are on my website for there are plenty of stories ;). Anyway, my dad doesn't like cats so he started to teach the cats tricks. Mainly because the animal needed a point. And also because he works from home.

One year later, the cat sits, "flops", "flips," and - get this - when my dad says "gentle" - the cat opens his mouth and my dad places a treat in his mouth.

Serious domination issues. Seriously weird.

There's no way you can make the comparison. Either of my cats would just look at me and say "go and get stuffed, funny man, but before you do - feed me".

Just a comment on the previous post if I may, negative feedback. Heather, I always thought that you and Jon should have been Australian. You guys have an Aussie sense of humour. Americans (generally) don't have that same sense of humour. (some, none at all.) Anyway, if you can't take the piss out of something, you may as well shoot yourself. Same as if you can't take a joke. Love your humour, satyr, and sarcasms. That's what sanity is.