Yes, Virginia, apparently there is a fairy dog mother and she’s going to help us with Hershey! My neighbor, who’s fretted over my troubles with this headstrong dog, passed on the name of her dog sitter to me. “She’s kind of a dog whisperer,” she told me. “She comes right to your house and works with you and your dog. She did wonders for our dog.”
Private training? “That sounds expensive,” I said, knowing I’m running out of options here.
“Oh, she doesn’t charge anything. She just loves dogs and loves helping families. She just asks for a donation to the local SPCA. She’s on the board of directors there. I’m sure she can help you,” she told me, as Hershey tried to drag me down the sidewalk.
I took the phone number from her, like it was Santa’s personal cell phone information. Could this too-good-to-be-true woman really exist?
I called her and left a message. Would she call back? I already had one trainer not call me back. But later that night she called and we set up an appointment for her to come over when the whole family is here. (A short sliver of time in the middle of the day.)
So now I’m excited and nervous for her visit. Maybe some dogs aren’t trainable. Maybe Hershey would be the one dog she couldn’t help. The one she’d talk about at dinner parties. “Oh, this one dog I tried to work with was impossible….” Maybe she’d come once and never come back!
She explained on the phone that this is going to be about behavior not obedience. Call it what you want, just get my dog to calm down and listen! She set up some rules for her visit. We aren’t supposed to hold the dog back when she comes in the door. She’s going to totally ignore the dog and not talk to her. This should be interesting. Hershey’s main goal in life, besides getting food, is getting people’s attention.
So what’s on my wish list for improving Hershey’s behavior? I suppose number one on the list is to stop jumping on people when we walk, and to stop pulling me. That would be huge. Number two, if we could keep her off the furniture, that would be wonderful. Oh, and what we can do about all the chewing? Is it a dream to believe we could have a basket of toys for her and teach her that she can only chew on those things and not furniture, shoes and kid toys? Oh, oh! And what about stopping her from barking at 5am every morning?
It’s a big task for one woman, I know. We’ll see how much of a fairy dog mother she really is. But at least we’ve got someone to help. Life could be getting a lot easier around here. I hope.
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Have you missed any of the articles in this series?
If so, you can find them at:
The Bringing Up Puppy Series page.
Related posts:
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – Fairy Dog Mother – Part 2
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – The Worst Lab
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – Holding Tight
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – Who is the Boss?
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – Hello Stranger
