In the instruction manual, under long-line training, there is a statement something like, “Take your dog to a wide open park area and connect a 50-foot rope to his training collar…”
Yeh, right! That’s like a cookbook stating, “mix ingredients in a large bowl.” It gives you little idea about what you had to go through to get all those ingredients in the first place and then prepare them so that you can get to the simple mixing statement, above.
Let’s just take a look at TD3 and see what its like getting to the “wide open…area.”
To fully appreciate this, you must first know a little more about Jackson. Yesterday we mentioned that he was a rascal. We should, perhaps, expand on this a little. Jackson is a rascal that moves just a bit slower than the speed of light. And most of the time, what he wants to do and what you want him to do are diametrically opposed wishes. And remember we stated that he is a Yellow Lab? Well, yeh…partly. Jackson is 100% Lab and about 50% wild mustang.
Barbara brought him over to Loco Lane around 8:30 AM (again, “brought him over” is similar to “mix ingredients…” –but only Barbara can tell you what she went through to get him over here).
First thing, Jackson barged through the front door without so much as an “excuse me…” but Barbara was able to hold on long enough to take him around to Maggie’s area. It was my idea to hook the loop of his leash around a water pipe just to keep him in place long enough for us think about the next step. I didn’t realize he had Houdini qualities and Jackson was out of his collar in a flash, bolted around the yard, bolted through the garage, bolted through the dog-door into the house. Jackson then proceeded to inspect four rooms in less than four seconds. Somehow we were able to get him out of the house, back into his collar & leash and into the back of Sadie (Sadie is a car).
The drive to the open area in a new development known as Fiddyment Farms was comparatively uneventful. Jackson loves to ride (at least for short distances) and is happy to be able to stick his nose in the air through an open rear window. He has learned (somewhat) to stay in the back seat after two days of a loving elbow in his chest and a sharp “BACK!” command. What he has not mastered is staying in the back while I exit the car and go around to get him out curbside. This is where the Theory of Relativity comes in…his speed relative to mine. If his speed is just a bit slower than the speed of light, my speed is just a bit faster than an old tortoise. Not a match. It’s “Jackson, BACK! Jackson STAY!” Then I try to slip out the door and close it before “Flash Gordon” can squeeze by me to beat me out of the car. Believe it or not, I have been quite successful at this. As soon a Jackson sees me go to the back door on the passenger side, he is right there chomping at the bit to get out. This is not an easy step in this whole process! Consider my options: (1) I can simply let him out un-tethered (not a viable option…can’t take a chance on him running off). (2) I can open the door slowly and hope to grab his leash before he pushes me back and runs off (not a good option…remember the Houdini trick mentioned above?). Finally, (3) I learned from TD1 and TD2 that it is NOT a good idea to attach the long line before we are in the center of the open area, as it will invariably get tangled around some lurking, vertical object. When this happens, the dog does not simply wait for his trainer to untangle the line. On the contrary, he will continue to compound the problem by entangling his trainer and even himself! It can take from 10 to 15 minutes to get out of this situation. So how did we get him into the training area today? I opened the door, grabbed his leash, and moved with him as quickly as I could to prevent him from pulling on and slipping out of his collar.
Other than that, getting to the center of the training area was, well, pretty uneventful.
Yeh, right! That’s like a cookbook stating, “mix ingredients in a large bowl.” It gives you little idea about what you had to go through to get all those ingredients in the first place and then prepare them so that you can get to the simple mixing statement, above.
Let’s just take a look at TD3 and see what its like getting to the “wide open…area.”
To fully appreciate this, you must first know a little more about Jackson. Yesterday we mentioned that he was a rascal. We should, perhaps, expand on this a little. Jackson is a rascal that moves just a bit slower than the speed of light. And most of the time, what he wants to do and what you want him to do are diametrically opposed wishes. And remember we stated that he is a Yellow Lab? Well, yeh…partly. Jackson is 100% Lab and about 50% wild mustang.
Barbara brought him over to Loco Lane around 8:30 AM (again, “brought him over” is similar to “mix ingredients…” –but only Barbara can tell you what she went through to get him over here).
First thing, Jackson barged through the front door without so much as an “excuse me…” but Barbara was able to hold on long enough to take him around to Maggie’s area. It was my idea to hook the loop of his leash around a water pipe just to keep him in place long enough for us think about the next step. I didn’t realize he had Houdini qualities and Jackson was out of his collar in a flash, bolted around the yard, bolted through the garage, bolted through the dog-door into the house. Jackson then proceeded to inspect four rooms in less than four seconds. Somehow we were able to get him out of the house, back into his collar & leash and into the back of Sadie (Sadie is a car).
The drive to the open area in a new development known as Fiddyment Farms was comparatively uneventful. Jackson loves to ride (at least for short distances) and is happy to be able to stick his nose in the air through an open rear window. He has learned (somewhat) to stay in the back seat after two days of a loving elbow in his chest and a sharp “BACK!” command. What he has not mastered is staying in the back while I exit the car and go around to get him out curbside. This is where the Theory of Relativity comes in…his speed relative to mine. If his speed is just a bit slower than the speed of light, my speed is just a bit faster than an old tortoise. Not a match. It’s “Jackson, BACK! Jackson STAY!” Then I try to slip out the door and close it before “Flash Gordon” can squeeze by me to beat me out of the car. Believe it or not, I have been quite successful at this. As soon a Jackson sees me go to the back door on the passenger side, he is right there chomping at the bit to get out. This is not an easy step in this whole process! Consider my options: (1) I can simply let him out un-tethered (not a viable option…can’t take a chance on him running off). (2) I can open the door slowly and hope to grab his leash before he pushes me back and runs off (not a good option…remember the Houdini trick mentioned above?). Finally, (3) I learned from TD1 and TD2 that it is NOT a good idea to attach the long line before we are in the center of the open area, as it will invariably get tangled around some lurking, vertical object. When this happens, the dog does not simply wait for his trainer to untangle the line. On the contrary, he will continue to compound the problem by entangling his trainer and even himself! It can take from 10 to 15 minutes to get out of this situation. So how did we get him into the training area today? I opened the door, grabbed his leash, and moved with him as quickly as I could to prevent him from pulling on and slipping out of his collar.
Other than that, getting to the center of the training area was, well, pretty uneventful.
1 comment:
Hopefully he does not fail this boot camp...just bringing him to your house was a terrible task...I will not go into details of how excited he got when I was dropping Kyleigh off at school! Let's just say he loves kids...
kudos to you for taking this project!!!
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