Patience, Consistency and One’s Inside Voice

I am one of those people that would love to say,

“I will never yell at my Joshua!” However, I believe that how one treats one’s dog is how one will treat your children. So I’ve had to really evaluate myself and redirect some crap behavior I’ve had. Why, do you ask? Because Tiesto has taught me that I can yell with a vengeance. He has shown me that I can, in fact, contemplate the best way to make a negative consequence stick in one’s mind. He has brought to light in me many a parental issue I need to work out before my Joshua makes it to his teenage years. I do not want to parent like that and I do not want to be a dog owner like that either. So what have I done?

I have taken steps to minimize Tiesto’s free range of the house to one dog proof area and attempt to correct a million times a day with a calm voice, knowing that some day he will get it. That Joshua’s toys are never ever going to be his, NOT EVER! Oh, goodness, there I go again, as I said, I attempt to keep my voice even keel. I don’t want Joshua to hear yelling either. I really really want my house to be a house of peace! And a really freakin’ big well behaved dog as a sidenote. Haha Joshua cannot say Tiesto yet, however, today I caught him correcting Tiesto with his man voice and it sounded a lot like my yell, so I have to continue work on me in that area.

Tiesto sits, stays and downs like a champ and walks off lead in the back yard and in the house at my side. In the front yard he walks on a loose lead and during all obedience exercises in Pet Smart and out and about he does well. However, get him on a normal every day outing and I feel like a flea towing an Elephant!!! So I escalated from the flat collar to a choke collar(I used it properly as well) and again had the same flea/elephant sensation. My arms and wrists were freakin’ exhausted from the darn excursion of it all not to mention that people started looking at me like I was a flea and a very dumb one at that! So I realized that I needed to make another change. A friend of mine once told me that the definition of insanity was trying the same thing and expecting a different outcome(no her name was not Webster). I went to PetSmart in search of something that I had used with wonderful results on Tigger, my Staffordshire Bull Terrier. A Halti! They had the Gentle Leader so I got that one, same difference. I watched the instructional video and I am prepared to give it a go tomorrow and see how it works. I am going to give him a couple of days to get used to how it feels before we try a PetSmart outing.

I continue to work on the basic obedience stuff so that he will be prepared for his intermediate course, which starts at the end of July with Judy! We can’t wait!

I also continue his socialization. He was so great on the road trip! Here are some tips for Road Tripping!

1) Make sure he is crate trained, the crate relaxes them because it is a piece of home.
2) Make sure that you have a squirt bottle of water because the new place will restart unwanted barking, squirting water works great and you can get the whole family involved. Haha
3) Do not lacks the rules because you are on vacation. You are on vacation the dog isn’t. Trust me, this will save you headaches!
4) Put the water and food buckets within his reach while driving long distances, you will be amazed at the fact that they will actually eat and drink as the car is moving!

Now, if your dog is full grown it might be different but for a pup this is what I learned the hard way.

Stay tuned for Gentle Leader outcome and advanced road tripping!:0)