Dog Training

1 Year, 19 Days

Amongst all the other things that have gone "wrong" in dealing with selling the house / showing house / moving sales / finding a new home to move to / etc. by far the craziest thing is when Bullet, Mom's dog, bit the neighbor kid in the butt. After the ordeal had been blown out of proportion in so many different ways, Mom decided to hire a dog trainer. I think she lucked out for once, because it's actually been informative, interesting, fun and even successful! Last week we had our first lesson. Bullet was given a collar that sends pulses to get his attention, like tapping on someone's shoulder. I can feel level 1 in my palm if I'm really concentrating and ready for it. A level 7 makes my hands feel extra sensitive after the fact, like I should be wary of more pulses coming. (I honestly don't know what the difference is between "pulses" and "shocks". The instructor said today that an electric fence takes on average of 8 times before a dog understands its boundaries. By our scale on the collar device, let's say an electric fence goes up to a level 20. Ours only goes to 7, so it'll take a few more "pulse" zaps before Bullet fully understands. ...An electric fence will make a dog jump!)

Well, Bullet doesn't like the vibration. So we just use the lowest of pulses. This past week we focused on basic commands: Come, Sit, Free, and This Way. Come and Sit are obvious, except that he isn't supposed to move until you release him. Which is what Free is. This Way is kind of like "I don't have a specific place for you to go to, walk with me this way." And with each command we must hit the button on a level 1. That way he knows to pay attention when Owner is around. It might take a few times to get his attention, in which case, if it takes more than 3-4 times of commanding him, we have to turn up the level one notch. The highest I've gotten with him was a 3. But by the end of the week, after using all of this while walking Luke to the end of the drive for the bus, it was hard to even command him because he was already doing things before I had a chance to say it. He also started going poop on his walks without any training! Instead of going in the garage. Mom says that he's "respecting us more".

Anyway, so today we had our second lesson. We put up flags around the front perimeter of the house, only to the circle drive and across to the side of the house before the fence and on the other side in the small field to the fence, so he would know his boundaries. The flags tell him, "you can't pass this point". If he comes within 5 feet, we warn him with the sound. If he comes within 2 feet, we "pulse" him at a 4-ish. (Every dog is different. Some only need a little buzz and some need the mack daddy pulse. Bullet whimpered and freaked out a 7 when we were testing him. He learned quick not to cross over by the flags. So we only have to use a 3-4. Maybe a 5 or 6 if he doesn't return to the safe spots.

This week is all about the front yard and going off leash.

By the end of his lesson, he was DONE. It wears him out. He didn't even want to be near the yard, only wanted to stay on the front porch. Or in the garage. By the end of the week, he'll know his limits.

I thought this would be an interesting thing to write about because, well, we've never had a "trained" dog before. And also, because Bullet is Mila's favorite. We'll go outside and she'll look around for him and call - Bull! Bull! He'll come over and lick her hand and the inside of her mouth. She enjoys it.... And my last reason is because maybe, just maybe, one day we'll decide to own our own pet (and of course it'll be a dog because we're dog people - must be warm-blooded unlike the stupid fish and stupid crabs Luke had/has) and we'll need to know how to train them. So for your records, sport dog? is the brand of dog collar that's been working. I'll let you know more about our doggie school as it comes up!