I thought we were done!

Yesterday afternoon, I dared to face the frigid temperatures. Of course not by myself - I like the warm weather way too much! I met with a couple and their 6-year-old Golden Retriever. Yesterday was our last session. They had called me a few weeks ago, because they were concerned about their dog barking at other dogs and sometimes charging them.

But, lets go back all the way in time: They bought him as a puppy and he was an adorable fuzzy little thing. They attended an obedience class with him, which he mastered without any problems. This Golden never had to complain about lack of attention. A couple of years later he had an accident which resulted in ruptured discs. They lovingly and tenderly nursed him back to health and although he now limps, he is enjoying chasing the ball again! I guess during that time of getting him back to walking, they would let things slide. How could they not? They were so relieved that he had survived? Whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted they would make sure he had it. The first time I was there, he greeted me at the door very enthusiastically. Even after talking for about 20 minutes with his owners, he still wouldn't calm down. Once he was told to calm down, he was hellbent on wanting to go outside to play ball. When we later went outside so that I could see him playing ball, the owners said that he never dropped the ball for them. I had already done some exercises with him inside, so he knew that I wouldn't budge. He came with the ball, I took it out of his mouth and threw it again. The owners couldn't believe it.

We worked out a training plan for him, to get his manners back on track. After five weeks of training (I think it was harder work for the owners) he was a changed dog. He had door manners, he settled when told and he walked nicely on a leash, even when we introduced different dogs to him and walked them together. To see, if he really understood what was expected from him, I asked the clients to come and meet at a different place rather than their house. A place I knew that would have lots of distractions - smells, dogs, people and traffic. Dog and owners did a great job and I couldn't have been any happier. After our session we talked about their experiences over the last few weeks, what they have learned, onwhat they will need to work some more and that they needed to make sure that they wouldn't let things slide again. The comment at the end was: "AND I THOUGHT WE WERE DONE ONCE WE HAD TAUGHT HIM OBEDIENCE!"

Having a dog is a work in progress. It's the same like having children - you are never done raising them. :)