Anyway, I forced Ferris to stay outside with me for a few hours and he's such a good boy, lads. I've accidentally introduced a few new context-specific commands:

"Where are you, handsome?" Ferris finishes his sniff before running to find me and check in. After I've given him a petting, he runs back to wherever he'd been and resumes being a dog.

"FERRIS~!" Outside time is over - abandon your sniffing, come straight away. He runs to my door and waits for me to let him inside.

"Go play." Leave me alone, you hovering mother hen. He knows that he needs to go do something else for a few minutes, minimum.

why yes I DO need to order my dog to leave me alone, he takes his protection job VERY seriously

I love him

what an angel

blessed dog