By Hexen Suzi Jones –
So today of course it decided to hold off raining until 1/2 hour before class! I sat in the car thinking oh boy here we go no one shows up in the rain.
(to which I work my dogs in the rain and we do alot of hiking in the rain this helps with having them use to storms and taking care of business when it is wet)
I told one student to show up early as what she had described to me over the phone about her Rat terror’s behavior and her coon hound mix behavior I thought I was going to have snapping snarling mess on my hand. Nope totally the opposit. Yes they were very untrusting but no problem. They do not need to be on anything more at the moment then flat nylon collars( the small coon hound mix might move up to a small prong.
Then I had an 18 month old rottie in class she is super friendly but she knows how strong she is…………… Prong collar, but the owner is going to be the hard one to break on some bad pulling habits! as it really is a tug of war habit between them. To which the wife will not walk the dog because of her pulling.
I had a young Cocker spaniel that is not aggressive just knows he can get away with too much expecially trying to display seperation anxeity and a general wheiner about it. Also he has the owner trained so she gives him people food mixed in with his dog food to eat if not she claims the dog will not eat anything and if she leaves the room he absolutly will not eat. (She claims he went almost 1 week with out eating) I will give her that when I went to groom him he was too under weight that just looking at him my blood sugar dropped!
then I had Conan the golden retriever! A monster of a dog! I say over weight by at least easy 5 pounds. “But I thought that was all hair!” she exclaims.
She kind of grimmissed when I was talking about prong collars. Ah she said “those are the things with the stakes?” “No that would be what you kill vampires with, not stop a dog from pulling and dragging you all over”
So I fitted one of Uly’s prongs on him and what a champ he is such a soft dog that his protest is trying to grab the leash while walking. All I had to do was stop tell him now then get walking once more.
No sorry both the rottie and the golden are the width of pulling coffee tables!
Further on is a yorkie young female that the owner carries everywhere! Put her down she is a scardey mess all she needs is to not be picked up and she should really start to gain her own confidence. Part of it is when the dog gets scared she runs to the owner the owner picks her up thus reinforcing the idea of lack of confidence. So I instructed the owner to push the dog off firmly and tell her no! By doing this the owner is reclaiming her space to the dog just a part of taking the leadership position. This worked very well and she also is just a flat buckle collar.
Well that is all for today. I thanked everyone for all showing up in the pouring rain as it was and telling everyone that the classes will get more interresting.