Well we are struggling to fine tune the training with the girls. Each of them has their own personality and that's great but it also means that some times you have to be "inventive" when it comes to training.
For example...Nicki acts like a complete moron when she first gets in the barn door. (training takes place in a barn). She pulls like a fool on the leash, which results in her chocking herself continually, yet she still manages to put back her head and howl at the top of her lungs. This is her way of announcing her arrival. Once I manage to drag her to a seat on the side lines she will spend the next 10 mins trying to sniff; lick, touch noses with or jump on any other dog that happens to be near her. In short, Nicki is the embarrassing dog that I always used to see OTHER people struggle with. And this precious little twit is all mine!
Bell, on the other hand will walk nicely on the leash, calmly enter the building and quietly look at all the other dogs...saying nothing. Then she will also pull like a moron to get to the seating area where she is likely to meet dogs that Nicki is irritating. Together, they are Satanic twins on wheels! Separately they are angels!
Unfortunately for me, this week I had to bring both dogs into the barn by myself. Justin was meeting me there. (he couldn't get there fast enough for me!) I made my loud, out of control entrance with both dogs at the same time. I wasn't surprised that every head turned when we entered the building. It was like a puppy tornado just hit. And what was previously a reasonably quiet group of dogs all burst into song once Nicki started howling again. My first reaction was to scold Nicki (red faced of course) but I immediately realized that was a waste of time. I had no control over the two of them and a barn full of barking dogs. Then I started to laugh. The whole situation was so absurd...so totally the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen...so embarrassing...I just had to laugh about it. I dragged my two idiots to the side lines...calling them fuzzy twits and rowdy morons on my way over there.
There was a nice young woman sitting there with her totally obedient dog..we knew each other from previous classes. She had a fleeting look of horror on her face when she realized I was headed her way. She must have felt sorry for me because she did her best to have a conversation with me while I struggled to keep the pups from running amuck. I honestly have no idea what she said to me...I couldn't hear her over the howling. (oh yes, it continues for awhile with Nick). And I was so preoccupied with just trying to stop them from irritating other dogs (Nicki is the type of puppy that adult dogs usually want to bite) that I couldn't pay attention to her. I think she was complaining about her husband anyway so I just kept nodding every once in awhile and giving non-committal replies. Eventually her dog started to snarl at Nicki so that ended our conversation as we had to put some distance between the dogs.
And before you get the impression that Nicki is the only one driving me nuts....it was sweet little Bell that ended up taking a dump on the floor in the middle of the class. It was Justin's turn to have the red face this time. I had my turn at that when Nicki decided to poop on the floor last week. Does it never end with these two??
Eventually Nicki does calm down and I have to say she does wonderfully when I have her attention. She KNOWS her commands, it's just too hard to pay attention with all the activity around her. Bell does fairly well but she seems to have a fixation on Nicki all the time. The trainer came to me later in the class and suggested I start doing things with the pups separately from each other. Bell needs to know she is her own dog and not just an extension of Nicki. She also said she had the same problem with a dog that didn't want to be separated from another dog of hers. It was a sad time in her house when one dog died and the dependent one was left behind. She said the dog never really got over it. She didn't want me to have the same thing happen some day and now is the time to start preventing that.
With that in mind, Bell is coming with me today over my parents house. Today is one of my "dad days" so I'm bringing Bell with me. It will be interesting to see how she acts with me alone. And hopefully it will be the first step in creating an independent Bell. And honestly it will be a relief to only have to deal with one of them for a change. They are great pups but they wear me out!
