Dog Training

As I have mentioned in my previous posts we have recently rescued two dogs, one male "Bobo" and one female "Daisy".  I love dogs, I love cats, I love all animals (mostly).  Recently my husband was away on business and with a 1 year old daughter to care for it makes it impossible for me to walk our dogs.  Dogs need exercise, especially labs which is what both of our dogs are.  We have a huge fenced in backyard and toys galore for them to play with, but do you think they just run around all day in the back yard and play with eachother? Nope.  I think that's what we thought they would do, not even close.  They mostly stare in through the kitchen door watching me all day long with their big puppy dog eyes.  God forbid I come near the door, they are jumping up and scratching at the door to come in.  Mind you, they are strictly outdoor dogs because we have 3 cats and at this point in time the dogs see the cats as more of a "chew toy" than a living being.

I called a dog walker that we have used before to pet sit before we had the dogs.  She came over, last minute (bless her heart) and I gave her the lowdown on the newest members of our family.  I don't think she knew what she was in for.  The second she stepped outside the door they were all over her.  The liked her don't get me wrong, actually all of my animals like her, which is good seeing as she is a pet sitter/dog walker.  They were jumping on her making it almost impossible for her to even get their leashes on.  Once she did though they were off dragging her to the gate to get out for their walk that they look forward to so much everyday.  I warned her to watch out as she opened the gate, because they tend to knock over anything in sight to get out the gate first and they aren't small dogs, 50 and 60 lbs. each.  As I stood at the door in my house holding my daughter the first thing I see is Daisy running free.  Obviously she got out first and made a run for it and Carol (dog walker) lost her grip on the leash.  Luckily Daisy doesn't go further than the driveway and was soon caught.  So they are on their way, Carol pretty much being walked by these two dogs, the two of them combined weighing as much as poor Carol, being the tiny thing she is.

Carol walked them for three days, twice a day and by the third day she had actually gotten them under  control believe it or not, with the help of many chicken jerky treats, lol!  After the last walk Carol gave me the number of a dog trainer who could come to my house for an evaluation just to let us know what would be involved in getting our dogs under control.  She also praised them saying how much they had improved since the first time she walked them.  She had gotten them to walk beside her instead of dragging her behind them.  She had gotten them to wait at the gate until she got out first instead of running her over.  She had also gotten my Daisy to sit a few times which she had never done for us.  I'm not sure Daisy was ever trained or leash walked.  It was however very apparent Daisy had been abused which makes me give her that much more love every time I go outside to see her.

It's hard to train your dog, especially with everything else you have going on in your life, family, etc.  But if you spend just that extra time each time you walk them or are with them they are such smart animals and they learn so very quickly that you see an improvement almost every day if not every day.