Mother is not pleased with me. She says my adolescent craziness is driving her up the wall. This weekend I have completely regressed in the area of paying her attention in the dog run – she said “You know boy, this weekend it’s like mummy didn’t exist to you! I could have gone home, watched a movie and returned to pick you up from the dog run and you wouldn’t have noticed I was gone!” Which is.. er.. probably true.
When Mother called out “Romeo come!” this weekend, all I did was turn my head to her, then I’d turn the other way and find something interesting to sniff. It wasn’t like she was 60 feet away either, more like 6 feet. I think I hear Mother sobbing away and ranting on a forum now. I really can’t control meself you know! Mother read somewhere that ”every ‘trained’ behavior will constantly be deteriorating and will need to be ‘refreshed’”. How very frustrating that must be for Mother! She’s got to live with this until I’m 1 and a half years old at least! She is hoping her Control Unleashed DVD arrives soon so she can get a better visual on how to put Leslie McDevitt’s techniques to use (uh-oh for me?) and hopefully be able to better manage me. I think the most important thing for Mother to understand and remember always is that we all have our bad days!!
My rude teen behaviour continues. Mother took some short videos of what I was doing to other dogs (tho’ they don’t fully capture the extent of it!) – particularly one Jack Russell Terrier and a mixed breed. The JRT had a sister who was fiesty! She would come in aid of her (bigger sized) brother (at whom I was barking, and nipping and annoying) and clamp down on the fur on my back (Mother thought this very funny because she said it’s like a taste of my own medicine). The mixed breed actually (surprisingly to Mother) benefited from my nagginess and persistence. This dog was originally dog shy and didn’t like it when dogs came close to it. But, Romeo comes to save the day! The black dog must have eventually realised I meant no harm and we had a bit of a game on the grass.
I found this story online – written by Suzanne Clothier, a well known and respected dog trainer in the US. It’s called “He Just Wants To Say ‘Hi!‘”. I hope many of your mums and dads will read this and understand that sometimes it’s not you that is aggressive (or that sometimes it’s you just being really rude!). Mother recognises and understands my teenage behaviour and always tells the owners whose dog I am harassing and is snapping at me, that it’s because I am rude and it’s ok that the dog is doing that. She’s right you know, sometimes I do deserve a good snarl and a quick snap. I’m a wild and unruly young boy!
For those of you with mums and dads interested in understanding basic canine behaviour, here’s a pictorial guide from the American SPCA. It’s very simplistic, but at least mums and dads out there will start to realise that we communicate via body language and hopefully they will start observing and noticing our signals! Funny how we don’t have this here. There’s a lack of information and too many ignorant people!
