"We had a Maltese for almost 13 years before Coco and she had passed away," Coco's owner Katee Lauchner told Bored Panda. "We were devastated and couldn’t handle not having a dog in the house so I went online in search of another female Maltese, and that’s how I found Coco. She was from a local breeder in Arizona."
About 7 months after the family got Coco, they decided to get another Maltese so their pup would have a friend. And that's when they got Cici. "Coco is actually Cici’s aunt but we call them sisters in our home."
"Coco is super sweet, kind and gentle," Katee said. "She’s almost human-like and she doesn’t care to play with her toys, she’d rather be sitting next to her humans getting belly rubs."
Coco was super easy to train. "Within only a week of having her as she was already trained to do sit and then the following week she learned 'down'. Then it was roll-over and then high five!" Katee's daughter Jessie said. She's the one who manages Coco’s social media accounts. "Our other Maltese was not this smart so we knew Coco was super special! She then learned to 'sit pretty' which is the pose you see in most pictures! She was trained to stay seated and then just sit up but she gets so excited that almost every time she will stand up and put her paws in the air."
"The 'Paws Up' trick started out as a sit pretty command," Katee added. "My daughter taught her using the back of the couch for support and taking a treat above her head to get her to move upward. Over the years, Coco has turned it into her own thing by standing up and putting her paws up, and now she does it all the time even without us asking. We can’t stop her from doing it and we can’t stop laughing. She knows she gets our attention by doing it. She’s smart and does it always while we eat to try to get us to share with her!"
Katee said that Coco is so food-motivated, she will learn and do anything for a tasty snack. "We swear there’s a human inside her as she seems to understand us when we talk, even when we say look into the camera, she makes direct eye contact, it’s crazy and cool at the same time."
Cici doesn’t like the camera as much as Coco, so she isn't appearing on their Instagram very often. "We never force either dog to do anything they don’t want to do," Katee said. However, both good girls are certified therapy dogs working at Phoenix Children’s Hospital! "We love to make people smile and spread a little joy with our posts and in person when we work at the hospital."
