Speech, Vision, Hearing

Sonya Dog has shown no interest in learning how to speak English, but she does understand a few words of it.  She usually obeys "sit," "stay," "down," "come," and "leave it," but translates "no" as meaning "please leap up beside me on the couch and make yourself comfortable."
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Some dogs may be color-blind, but Sonia recognizes blue.  She knows that anyone at PetsMart wearing a blue shirt will give her treat, and she's wary of the blue tarp that Husband covers the riding mower with.  The black tarp was okay, but that blue one is highly suspicious.
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Sonia can hear the rip of Velcro from three rooms and a floor away when Mommy is putting on her outdoor shoes to go for a walk, but she doesn't even twitch an eyelid when Daddy's alarm clock rings.  

Exposure and Exercise

Sonia loves the sound of velcro ripping because, more often than not, it means Mommy is putting on her walking shoes to take Doggie up to the road so they can pick up the mail.  Fiorella's done this almost every day since she and Husband started taking Sonia to a PetsMart behavior class, and the results are in.  Sonia stares at passing vehicles now, but doesn't lunge at them and break the leash. And last week, although children still frighten her, she actually sniffed in an interested way at a few adults.  So Fiorella decided to up the ante and hitch her up for a morning walk too, around all 190 linear yards of the driveway. 

Worked like a charm, with an added benefit.  Not only is Sonia more relaxed on the leash, but she flops on the floor when she gets home and is asleep in two minutes, which lets Fiorella have some  quality writing time uninterrupted by Doggie's usual demands to entertain her.