This morning it was raining hard again. The dreary weather outdoors was incentive enough to plan for a day indoors to do some work on my computer and just enjoy being home with the dogs. I figured this would also afford you the chance to do something we hadn’t been able to do yet; just hang out around the house without having to bounce off the walls, the furniture, and the other dogs.
You were having a hard time trying to learn to relax when you were indoors. It seemed that most of the interactions you had with the other dogs or us, resembled something more along the lines of Romper Room. You had spent quite a bit of time inside your kennel in your special corner in the living room; especially during your 2 week kennel cough quarantine. You were still in the early stages of the good house-dog manners learning process.
I had a short, 3-foot tether clipped to the corner of your kennel so that you could socialize with the other dogs to an extent. But this also allowed the other dogs to be able to get away when you became just too much. You were still a little rambunctious and would prefer to spend your entire 24-hour day pouncing on top of Buddy, tunneling underneath Mossy’s short belly, and bumping into Henna.
The tether came in handy by allowing me to wait until you were relaxed and calm, then swoop in on you to give you attention and praise for behaving. When you were overexcited, rowdy, or jumping around on the end of your tether everyone in the house was instructed to ignore you. This way, the only attention you got was when you were good!
This was a trick I learned many years ago when Henna was an adolescent dog. We attended a seminar given by an animal behaviorist who had recommended this tethering technique for teaching appropriate household behavior. In our previous house, we had a tether that would clip into an eye bolt that had been screwed into a faceplate in the wall, near the floor.
Every once in a while I would have someone curiously look at the small silver ring that protruded from the wall and ask me what it was for. Once I explained the concept, most everyone ‘got it’. It was an ingenious idea actually. I have no idea where this concept originated, but I had utilized it fairly regularly to teach a dog to be calm indoors. I had even used it to teach a dog not to barge the door when the pizza guy made his delivery to our door.
Now entering her early senior years, Henna was by far the most relaxed and mellow dog in the house. But in her puppyhood, she had been aptly dubbed ‘Devil Dog’ by one of our good friends during a camping trip to the sand dunes of Oregon in an RV. She was about 6 months old during the trip and woke our friend daily by leaping onto his chest and licking his face until she managed to essentially harass him out of bed.
It was because of Henna that I sought out many of the dog activities I still take part in to this day. She had such a surplus of energy that she was in dire need of some sort of outlet; something that would give her direction and teach her focus.
Henna was a good training tool for me. She was a quick learner which made her fairly easy to train. This allowed me to get my feet wet in more advanced levels of training that I hadn't done before. The problem with this, though, was that I made many mistakes along the way, and still ended up with a dog that essentially made me look good in competitions. I know now that I had been spoiled! I didn't realize the extent of my spoiling until years later when we acquired our second Chocolate Labrador, Mossy. Mossy took considerably more time, patience, and a multitude of creative approaches to the same point across.
You were having a hard time trying to learn to relax when you were indoors. It seemed that most of the interactions you had with the other dogs or us, resembled something more along the lines of Romper Room. You had spent quite a bit of time inside your kennel in your special corner in the living room; especially during your 2 week kennel cough quarantine. You were still in the early stages of the good house-dog manners learning process.
I had a short, 3-foot tether clipped to the corner of your kennel so that you could socialize with the other dogs to an extent. But this also allowed the other dogs to be able to get away when you became just too much. You were still a little rambunctious and would prefer to spend your entire 24-hour day pouncing on top of Buddy, tunneling underneath Mossy’s short belly, and bumping into Henna.
The tether came in handy by allowing me to wait until you were relaxed and calm, then swoop in on you to give you attention and praise for behaving. When you were overexcited, rowdy, or jumping around on the end of your tether everyone in the house was instructed to ignore you. This way, the only attention you got was when you were good!This was a trick I learned many years ago when Henna was an adolescent dog. We attended a seminar given by an animal behaviorist who had recommended this tethering technique for teaching appropriate household behavior. In our previous house, we had a tether that would clip into an eye bolt that had been screwed into a faceplate in the wall, near the floor.
Every once in a while I would have someone curiously look at the small silver ring that protruded from the wall and ask me what it was for. Once I explained the concept, most everyone ‘got it’. It was an ingenious idea actually. I have no idea where this concept originated, but I had utilized it fairly regularly to teach a dog to be calm indoors. I had even used it to teach a dog not to barge the door when the pizza guy made his delivery to our door.
Now entering her early senior years, Henna was by far the most relaxed and mellow dog in the house. But in her puppyhood, she had been aptly dubbed ‘Devil Dog’ by one of our good friends during a camping trip to the sand dunes of Oregon in an RV. She was about 6 months old during the trip and woke our friend daily by leaping onto his chest and licking his face until she managed to essentially harass him out of bed.
It was because of Henna that I sought out many of the dog activities I still take part in to this day. She had such a surplus of energy that she was in dire need of some sort of outlet; something that would give her direction and teach her focus.
Henna was a good training tool for me. She was a quick learner which made her fairly easy to train. This allowed me to get my feet wet in more advanced levels of training that I hadn't done before. The problem with this, though, was that I made many mistakes along the way, and still ended up with a dog that essentially made me look good in competitions. I know now that I had been spoiled! I didn't realize the extent of my spoiling until years later when we acquired our second Chocolate Labrador, Mossy. Mossy took considerably more time, patience, and a multitude of creative approaches to the same point across.
You were considerably more mellow at 8 months than any of the other dogs. But since training is a lifelong work in progress, I was certain that someday down the road I'd be comparing your personality, energy level, and training stories too. But with the day's soaking wet weather, I was ready to spend the day watching you do your thing, and be there to guide you into appropriate inside play.
I was time. For the first time since you arrived, I was about to give you free access to the toys. I opened up the sliding door of the coat closet, where I kept a basket of toys. The large wicker basket sat on the floor and was chock full of dog toys that squeaked, tough tugging toys, large rubber chewing toys, and even a few rubber balls that were fairly slime resistant.
You joined the other dogs as they began unloading the toy basket one toy at a time and carrying them to the large area rug in the living room. It looked like we were about to have a carnival with the variety of colorful toys. The all time favorite toys seemed to be the ones with the loudest squeaks. They were made out of various colors of rubber and were more than twice the size of a typical tennis ball. I would sometimes step on them to get the dogs attention. As I released the pressure from my foot, the air would fill the toy and make a loud, hoarse, squeaking sound. This always riled everyone up in a hurry.
A couple of the toys had been de-squeaked. I'm not sure who was the culprit, as they all had a habit of working and chewing on the small cylindrical squeaker stuffed in the end of a toy. Once it had been extracted they usually delivered it to my hand or spit it at my feet, wagging their tail as if I should be so proud of their successful surgical accomplishment.
I never really understood why they did this. Because inevitably, once a toy had been de-squeaked it became much less interesting than a toy that still had it's squeaker intact. They still tossed it about and chomped on it. But I could see them turning it over and over in their mouth, still trying to figure out how to make it squeak. Eventually they would give up and abandon the squeak-less squeaker toy.
I the hours that followed you had a grand time prancing around the house with various toys dangling from your teeth and taking turns at games of keep away with the others. Sometimes you would pant heavily after a good roll on the floor with one of the squeaky toys. Your tongue flopped off to one side and hung out from between those labrador jowls, and you looked silly and happy. Occasionally you laid your back you would hold the toy between your front paws and raise it up in the air; only to drop it again into your mouth.
You played hard for an hour or so before collapsing into stretched out doggy slumber on the floor; only to get up and do it all over again a short time later. You repeated this series of playing and napping all day long.
During one of your naps I noticed that you managed to commandeer all three of the coveted squeaky balls; a yellow character, a pink elephant, and the blue frog. You flopped down on your side, and stretched your legs out in either direction so you were sprawled out across the floor. The three balls were tucked close to your body and moved slightly with the movement of your body and you sleepily breathed in and out.
Miraculously, none of the other dogs made a move to abscond with your loot as you slept. I had just finished cleaning the kitchen countertops and quietly grabbed the camera, hoping to capture the scene. I tiptoed around you, snapping a few pictures.
During a slow, deep and sleepy, breath one the balls rolled over and bumped your front leg. You sat up and immediately glanced, annoyingly, right at me. I couldn’t help but laugh. You calmly repositioned yourself, this time using your paws to gath
er all the balls between your front legs and your chest, and laid your head back down to finish your nap.
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