It has been an eventful weekend. At the moment I am caged in the office with Mauro. My wife has been trying to rest and read a book and Mauro has been laying on the bed chewing on her. Since she need something to take his mind off biting her, she gave him me. Now he is sitting here chewing on me.
I have noticed that we seem to have three dogs. One is “our dog” which is what Mauro is when we are all three out together and he is being his usual sociable self. Another is the one my wife refers to as “my dog”. That is the one that plays nicely and licks her hand. The third of course is the one she refers to as “your dog”. That is the one that bites, chews up family treasures and generally acts like a puppy. Its all part of being married.
Saturday, we went to the home base of the puppy school. They had asked for volunteers to help train future dog trainers. At the rate things are going, every third person in Stockholm is going to be a dog trainer. Considering how much Swedes love their dogs and love being educated, they may need them. So, we volunteered Mauro. We figured it was some free training and perhaps they could deal with some of the things we have been having trouble with. Some benefits did flow from the session but not what we expected.
There were six or eight dogs. A little shepherd, a Chihuahua, a Corgi, a golden retriever, a pug and a couple of others. When we arrived, a pretty young blond woman greeted us and happily took on Mauro as her project. After all, who can resist that sweet, personable, handsome young guy who licks your hand and rolls over on his back as soon as he meets you (especially if your are a blond lady). An hour and a half later, she returned Mauro with tears (of frustration) in her eyes, chewed up hands and a clearly broken spirit. They say she will be close to normal again after therapy. And, it is my feeling that years from now she will thank us for this learning experience. I’m sure it will make her a better trainer if she is not now so scarred she quits the business.
All the trainers sat around in a circle with their charges. The lead instructor sat in the middle of the circle and lectured the future trainers on how to train puppies to follow commands, not bite and things like that. My wife and I sat back and watched. She started with the Golden retriever who was obviously the class suck up. He sat and lay down and quietly did everything she wanted on the first try. In the meantime, Mauro’s trainer was finding that he was starting to squirm and lick her hands and face. If you know Mauro in such a situation, you know these are ominous signs. In the meantime, the Corgi, whose trainer was sitting next to Mauro’s, was barking, growling, squirming and biting. Of course that activity only encouraged Mauro. Soon you could hear high pitched yips from Mauro’s trainer as she used one of the guaranteed methods to stop a puppy from biting. I turned to my wife smiling and said “That’s my boy!” By this time there was so much yipping going on that the instructor felt she had to take a hand. She took Mauro next. He came out, sat on her lap and she turned to the class, opened her mouth and said “Yip. Yip. Yip.” She then used treats and “calming hands” to quiet Mauro down. That resulted in 40 pounds of squirming muscle trying to get away and get at the bowl of treats and a few nips on the calming hands.
We watched this lady go through the entire list of things these people throw at you in such an off hand manner when you ask them how to deal with a problem. The only thing she got right was her smile when she returned Mauro to his instructor and acted as if she had accomplished something. Mauro’s instructor looked as if she wanted to run screaming from the room but was forced to take him back or completely lose face. By that time he was getting tired so he quieted down some. Then we had to take him outside for a bathroom break and we quieted him down more ourselves. Of course, when he got back inside he was rested and ready to start over again.
Fortunately, the next one up was the Corgi. He made Mauro look an angel. He barked, growled, nipped at the instructor’s hands and generally disrupted everything. He and his trainer were finally banished to another room. At least they let Mauro stay in the class.
The day ended with thanks for our help and, I suspect, the hope that some of us didn’t come back. We, on the other hand, were very pleased. We now have a top ten list for Mauro. The top ten training tips that don’t work. And, it was very heart warming to see the instructor and potential trainers in action. When we all admit it, there is nothing more pleasurable than to see another human strive to succeed where you are having difficulties and fall flat on their face. My wife and I left feeling very proud of our little boy. They tried their best and he beat them paws down.
On another front, there is a new dog in the neighborhood. He is an Argentine Dogo (long “O”). That is one impressive animal. I have never seen one in person before. I saw a documentary, part of which showed them being used to hunt and kill feral hogs in the Southern US. But you don’t get a real picture of their size until you see one in person. They have a face like a Cane Corso or a Boxer but are much bigger. The Cane tends to be leaner. Well, as lean as you can be at 110 or 120 pounds. The Dogo has a little shorter body, is at least as tall as a full grown Cane, if not taller, and the one we saw weighed at least 150 or 160 pounds, all muscle. He is kind of like a 55 gallon barrel of muscle on legs. We saw him first with a young man. Then yesterday evening I saw him being walked by a young lady about the size of my wife. He was meek as a lamb. But they say that Dogos, like Canes, are very gentle dogs in the home environment but when you set them off are unstoppable and almost impervious to pain. One difference is that the Dogo is a hunter and the Cane is bred to be a guardian. They are both impressive breeds but the Argentine Dogo is one big dog. The man was walking their other dog, a Rottweiler. The Rottweiler was a full grown (large) Rottweiler and looked like a puppy next to the Dogo. All in all its good. We need some larger dogs in the neighborhood. All these little Jack Russells and Corgis, etc. get monotonous. Although, as we now know, Corgis can hold their own in any nasty dog contest.
No comments:
Post a Comment