We had taken Boomer to puppy school, but he was too young to learn to obey his family. So we signed him up for a multiple week course.
We learned how to use food to get him to sit, come, lie down, stay, drop it, and even roll over.
Unfortunately, our vet told him to stop doing “roll over” because his insides (his stomach) might get tied up! That was too bad, because he was getting pretty good at it.
One of our favorite tricks was “crawl”. We would have him lie down, then put a treat on the floor maybe 6 feet in front of him, and then say “CRAWL!”. He would crawl on his belly (like a soldier) all the way over to the food. This was a big hit with anybody that came over to the house.
We learned a lot of good things about training a good. In particular, we were told to say the command “one time”, and then stare at Boomer until he obeyed. We were also told to say the word loudly and with a deep voice, and use hand signals as well. We started saying “DOWN!” in a loud voice and put one hand high in the air. In order to get him to lie down we stepped on his leash to force his head down onto the ground. Eventually, he picked most of it up.
“Heel” was tough. We just couldn’t get him to walk alongside of us, and didn’t have enough time to practice.
One of the funniest things that happened at obedience school was squeaky toy related. Boomer loved squeaky toys. Whenever he heard a squeak he would search until he found it. The dog trainers were showing us how to teach our dogs to be obedient in the face of a distraction. Each dog would be asked to “sit”, with one of the trainers sitting behind them. The goal was for the trainer to squeak the toy and have the dog masters keep the attention of their dogs. This would train the dog to focus on their master no matter what distraction might occur.
I knew it was hopeless with Boomer. I told the dog trainer that there was no way Boomer would stay focused, but she said we should try. So I told him to “sit”, and he was intently focused on me.
As soon as she squeaked the toy, however, he whirled around and rushed at her lap (where the toy was hidden). He plowed right into her so hard that he almost knocked her over. He wanted that toy!
Boomer was more obedient at some things than others. But there were some things that distracted him and we couldn’t stop him: other dogs, people walking by our house, and squirrels were common things that distracted him. Once he saw those things. He became locked in and no amount of pleading would get him to come!
He always had to check out the new puppy on the street. Here is a picture of him meeting McCabe…
