As mentioned earlier, Chase liked to run; usually away from me. Our little town of Basin only had a couple streets and our yard was big so I didn't usually have him on a leash when letting him out. Ok, I was a bit lazy with the leash and thought it would be easier to just call him and he would come back. That lasted a couple days. Eventually, he caught wind of the neighbors dogs or the little girl down the road or the horses or whatever it was that was more interesting than me and in a shot, he was gone. Turns out, the leash would have been much easier.
It wasn't just the mornings in Basin either. Chase bolted whenever possible and especially in the most inconvenient times for me. One day we were at a sporting goods store in Helena. I left him in my jeep while I went in for a couple things. When I came out to load my stuff in the back, Chase leaped from the back seat out into the parking lot and within seconds, he was gone.
"No! Chase, get back here!" I ran after him and for the next 10 minutes, I chased him around the parking lot, around the store, out in the yard and back into the lot until I finally gave up.
About that time a 12 year old boy was coming out of the store with his dad. Chase was standing 20 yards away crouching as if ready to bolt again as soon as I came towards him. I walked away from Chase and to the boy and his father and asked him if he would do me a favor. I told him Chase's name and asked him the boy could call him. Chase was a sucker for kids. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that they always had some kind of food stuck to them, (especially the little ones.)
As I talked to the boy, Chase's curiosity kicked in and he started wondering over to us. The boy called his name and the cautious walk turned into a full on run to the boy and as the boy petted Chase, I grabbed his collar.
I carried him to the jeep and put him in the back seat, rolled him on his back and got in his face. "Dammit Chase. Listen!" I said as I pointed a finger in his face. Right.
Later that week, I went to a Pizza place just outside of Helena. They have horseshoe pits outside and hold league tournaments much like pool. A couple buddies had a team that was throwing that night and asked if I would sub. "Heck yeah." Nothing like pitching shoes to give me an excuse to have a few beers with the boys.
I let Chase out to run around and socialize with the folks. He was a cute puppy and the attention from the women was kind of nice. But there was always the end of the evening trying to get Chase back in the truck that was a guaranteed stresser for me and wasn't all that enduring to the girls. It's not cool watching some grown man running around while an 8 month old puppy gets the best of him. On this particular night however, I had a plan.
I know what you're thinking. "Why don't you just lure him into the jeep with a treat?" I tried that. It worked a few times but Chase caught on and he would have much rather had his freedom than some treat.
I opened the hatch on the jeep and my trap was set. It wasn't much of a plan but I knew it would work. Chase's weakness was that he never wanted to be left out of anything especially some game. He hated when I left without him because he thought I was going somewhere better than where he was at. So after opening the hatch, I started running around in circles and calling his name until he started chasing me. Back and forth I ran, ducking and dodging him as he jumped at me and after riling him up, I ran to the jeep. Not wanting to be left behind, he jumped in and I slammed the door shut.
"What the hell was that?" my buddy asked as he laughed at me.
"That's the only way I can get him in the jeep." I said.
"Well," he said, "I'm going to tell you something then that will change your life and you and Chase will be much happier."
We talked for about an hour that night. He explained to me how he had the same problems with his two labs and the one thing that changed everything was a choke chain. I was a little apprehensive because I also had another buddy who worked for the Humane Society and choke chains were out. But after revisiting the many frustrations of the past few months as well as having the realization that someday Chase would run out into the street and get run over looming in the back my head, I agreed that a small investment of a couple dollars for the collar might be worth it.
I went immediately to the store and picked up a collar for Chase and the next morning got started. For only two days I led Chase around on his new collar only giving him little jerks to correct him when he wasn't listening to simple commands and in those two days, Chase and my relationship grew ten fold.
What was lacking in our relationship was an understanding of who was boss. The choke chain enforced the hierarchy and although one might think "choking" a dog is cruel, the objective isn't to hurt the puppy or even to apply enough tension to actually choke them, but to get across to the puppy that I am in control. A few moments of discomfort was well worth the eventual outcome of Chase actually listening to me and at some point even progressing to a constant desire to please me. It literally took 2 days and a few little yelps and Chase seemed to be a different dog. However, he wasn't a different dog; he still had the same playful spirit, curiosities, and love for everyone and anyone that he met, he now just jumped straight in the jeep when I said "load up."
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Terrible Two's-1a
Chase grew up to be an amazing dog; he was fun, smart creative and the best friend a person could ever have. He didn't start out that way, however. In fact, he was kind of a little shit until he was about 3 years old.
The first real incident was shortly after I brought him home. I let him out to do his business and after chasing him around the little town of Basin, MT for about a half hour, I decided to take a shower and get ready for another eventful day at work. I was working for Alternative Youth Adventures and had just received a promotion, so Chase was kind of a way of celebrating my new position and my new lifestyle of spending more time at home and less time in the back country. Because I was on-call pretty much 24/7 for the duration my groups were in the back country, I had to live within a few miles of our base facility in Boulder. Basin was just down the road and a friend/co-worker was renting a house there so he suggested Chase and I move in.
I jumped in the shower and figured Chase would be alright hanging out in the living room for a few minutes while I did my business. It was winter-time and the house was brick; no insulation and the only heat source was a wood-burning stove with a broken damper. Burning the lodge-pole pine we had taken from an old burn area in the mountains, we could never keep the stove going past 3am so by 6, the house was always down to about 40 degrees. The hot water from the shower was not only welcoming but pretty much the only way to stop from shivering until the stove heated back up melting the frost off the walls. Needless to say, it was sometimes difficult to leave the sanctity of the hot shower. Subsequently, what should be five minutes of unsupervised freedom for Chase, often turned into 10 or 15 or even 20.
On this morning, I didn't think I was in the shower that long. Obviously long though because when I opened the door to run from the warm bathroom to my cold bedroom to jump into some thick layers of wool and fleece, I was stopped in my tracks by Chase lying in the middle of the living room amongst pages and pages of a ripped up paperback my roommate had been reading.
"No!!!" I yelled. I hadn't yelled or even really disciplined Chase until then so he didn't understand the new inflection that was thrust from my mouth. It didn't even startle him. He just lay there chewing away.
Chase cocked his head and looked at me as to say, "What's up?"
"No!" I said again. "No chew!" And I crabbed what was left of the book and smacked him on the nose.
With tail between the legs, Chase ran to his kennel to hide as I cleaned up the mess. I felt bad and after cleaning up the strips of shredded paper I went to Chase's kennel to give him some lovin.
The next day my morning ritual began with another game of chasing Chase around the neighborhood after letting him out to do the deed so-to-speak. After finally catching him, I left him in the living-room again, confident he wasn't going to be chewing up any more books after our little episode from the day before. I definitely shortened my shower though as my 'trust' in him wasn't as solid as I may have wanted. When I opened the bathroom door, Chase was sitting right in front of the door shaking. Apparently, the connecting of the dots wasn't as obvious for him as it was for me. Instead of recognizing the scolding from me as a consequence for chewing up the book, he associated it with me taking a shower. For the next week, Chase waited by the bathroom door while I was in the shower. In fact, even throughout his adult life he always checked on me.
There are plenty of lessons to take from this. Throughout his terrible two's, Chase and I struggled to be on the same page and I learned time and time again that it was much easier setting him up for success rather than allowing him to fail and then trying to teach with consequences. That's not to say there were no, or shouldn't have been any consequences but I was once asked how to keep a dog from getting into the garbage by my insurance agent and when I asked him where he kept the garbage he told me it was left in the kitchen next to the counter. I could tell how frustrated he was because every day he had to clean up after his puppy and he was just about to the end of his rope. "Could you lock the garbage up?" I asked.
The point is, a puppy will be a puppy and if you put situations like an open invitation to dig through the garbage in front of them, they will always fail. Sometimes a little failure leads to a life lesson but in most cases, unless you catch the puppy in the act, they're not going to get the lesson and you'll set yourself up for unnecessary battles that won't accomplish anything but more and more frustration for you and the dog. Lock the garbage up and if you have to take a shower, maybe the kennel is a better option for ten minutes rather than letting them explore freely.
The first real incident was shortly after I brought him home. I let him out to do his business and after chasing him around the little town of Basin, MT for about a half hour, I decided to take a shower and get ready for another eventful day at work. I was working for Alternative Youth Adventures and had just received a promotion, so Chase was kind of a way of celebrating my new position and my new lifestyle of spending more time at home and less time in the back country. Because I was on-call pretty much 24/7 for the duration my groups were in the back country, I had to live within a few miles of our base facility in Boulder. Basin was just down the road and a friend/co-worker was renting a house there so he suggested Chase and I move in.
I jumped in the shower and figured Chase would be alright hanging out in the living room for a few minutes while I did my business. It was winter-time and the house was brick; no insulation and the only heat source was a wood-burning stove with a broken damper. Burning the lodge-pole pine we had taken from an old burn area in the mountains, we could never keep the stove going past 3am so by 6, the house was always down to about 40 degrees. The hot water from the shower was not only welcoming but pretty much the only way to stop from shivering until the stove heated back up melting the frost off the walls. Needless to say, it was sometimes difficult to leave the sanctity of the hot shower. Subsequently, what should be five minutes of unsupervised freedom for Chase, often turned into 10 or 15 or even 20.
On this morning, I didn't think I was in the shower that long. Obviously long though because when I opened the door to run from the warm bathroom to my cold bedroom to jump into some thick layers of wool and fleece, I was stopped in my tracks by Chase lying in the middle of the living room amongst pages and pages of a ripped up paperback my roommate had been reading.
"No!!!" I yelled. I hadn't yelled or even really disciplined Chase until then so he didn't understand the new inflection that was thrust from my mouth. It didn't even startle him. He just lay there chewing away.
Chase cocked his head and looked at me as to say, "What's up?"
"No!" I said again. "No chew!" And I crabbed what was left of the book and smacked him on the nose.
With tail between the legs, Chase ran to his kennel to hide as I cleaned up the mess. I felt bad and after cleaning up the strips of shredded paper I went to Chase's kennel to give him some lovin.
The next day my morning ritual began with another game of chasing Chase around the neighborhood after letting him out to do the deed so-to-speak. After finally catching him, I left him in the living-room again, confident he wasn't going to be chewing up any more books after our little episode from the day before. I definitely shortened my shower though as my 'trust' in him wasn't as solid as I may have wanted. When I opened the bathroom door, Chase was sitting right in front of the door shaking. Apparently, the connecting of the dots wasn't as obvious for him as it was for me. Instead of recognizing the scolding from me as a consequence for chewing up the book, he associated it with me taking a shower. For the next week, Chase waited by the bathroom door while I was in the shower. In fact, even throughout his adult life he always checked on me.
There are plenty of lessons to take from this. Throughout his terrible two's, Chase and I struggled to be on the same page and I learned time and time again that it was much easier setting him up for success rather than allowing him to fail and then trying to teach with consequences. That's not to say there were no, or shouldn't have been any consequences but I was once asked how to keep a dog from getting into the garbage by my insurance agent and when I asked him where he kept the garbage he told me it was left in the kitchen next to the counter. I could tell how frustrated he was because every day he had to clean up after his puppy and he was just about to the end of his rope. "Could you lock the garbage up?" I asked.
The point is, a puppy will be a puppy and if you put situations like an open invitation to dig through the garbage in front of them, they will always fail. Sometimes a little failure leads to a life lesson but in most cases, unless you catch the puppy in the act, they're not going to get the lesson and you'll set yourself up for unnecessary battles that won't accomplish anything but more and more frustration for you and the dog. Lock the garbage up and if you have to take a shower, maybe the kennel is a better option for ten minutes rather than letting them explore freely.
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