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Community Corner

Hope For Mount Washington's Delinquent Dog

Handle With Care dog trainer Lezle Stein starts the Small Black Dog on the road to model canine citizen.

Gentle readers, there’s hope for the Delinquent Dog yet.

The story so far: two months ago, dog trainer Lezle Stein of Handle With Care Dog Training on 432 Museum Drive came over for the first private training session with the Small Black Dog who, to borrow a phrase from the zombie horror-comedy Shaun of the Dead,  had become “a bit bitey."

Here’s the real horror: because of a Perfect Storm of circumstances, the Small Black Dog bit Lezle on the leg. Twice.

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Lezle was the consummate professional and despite having to hold an ice pack to her leg for the entire hour, she managed to impart helpful information to us, her shell-shocked, hand-wringing clients, while the SBD barked nonstop outside the sliding glass doors.

Needless to say, household optimism did not run high regarding the Small Black Dog’s ability to become a well-behaved member of society, even with the help of Lezle’s eminently practical advice.  Given the alternatives, however, we put the SBD in the equivalent of military school.

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  1. No Face Time! When anybody but family was in the house (and during high-dog-traffic -time on walks around the neighborhood), the SBD had to wear a muzzle.
  2. No Free Lunch!  Every treat had to be earned by some combination of Come/Sit/Lie Down/Stay.
  3. No Gamboling!  During walks, the SBD had to heel at all times.

According to Lezle, dogs are bad decision makers and all training is designed to make the dog take behavioral cues from the owners.

  1. We did everything Lezle suggested.  We were trepidatious about the muzzle but the SBD was surprisingly amenable probably because, per Lezle’s suggestion, he got a treat every time he got muzzled.  He looks like a fluffy black Hannibal Lecter.  The peace of mind?  Priceless.
  2. The SBD got so much exercise with the sitting and the lying down and the coming and the to-ing and the fro-ing that, in spite of the extra treats, I think he lost five pounds.  I wish I could say the same.
  3. During walks, the Small Black Dog likes to trot merrily ahead as if leading a parade, his feathery tail bobbing like a plume on a drum major’s hat.   The point of getting him to heel is to establish us as Alpha Dogs.  He was literally hangdog during the first few days of walks, trudging along morosely as if resigned to a bleak future of non-adventure.  Gradually, however, he has regained his former friskiness and paces alongside in a reasonable facsimile of "heel."  He’d be laughed out of the Westminster Dog Show in a heartbeat but at least he knows there’s a new sheriff in town.

I don’t know why we were so surprised, but after two months of practice, practice, and more practice, the second session with Lezle was, and I’m not exaggerating, a thousand times better.  Not that it could get much worse.

I took the SBD on a pre-training session walk.  We stopped to talk to a neighbor.  The SBD sat quietly.  Lezle arrived and per her request, we met her across the street from our house.  She approached.  We chatted.  The Small Black Dog sat quietly.  Once in the house, the still-muzzled SBD lay under the table.  Quietly.  A couple of times, he wandered over to Lezle and wagged his tail.  She pointed out that she was purposely not looking him in the eye because dogs interpret this as a challenge. He wandered off.  Quietly.

Needless to say, Lezle was pleased with his progress and pointed out that just like with our kids, we had to set boundaries with the SBD.  I had to admit that our kids were so easygoing that we almost never had to set boundaries.    She pointed out that we probably did when they were little.  I told her that honestly, I didn’t think we did...much.  

Lezle then said that because he’s part Tibetan terrier, a breed that was trained as temple guard dogs, the Small Black Dog has a strong protective instinct and that we always had to stay one step ahead.  “You’re obviously a sweet family,” she said, “but you have to think of him as the bad teenager.”

Our well-behaved human teenager, who does not bite anyone that we know of, looked extremely gratified.

Lezle gave us new homework to help us redirect the SBD’s attention so we can replace bad behavior with good behavior that we then reward with gross-looking yet supposedly-scrumptious-to-the-canine lamb treats.

  1.  Because he barks at people and other dogs during walks, we’ve been working to get his attention focused on us.  At home, instead of canine calisthenics, we move a treat from his nose to our chin  four times while saying “Watch me” in a high “puppy voice."    During this little exercise, we feel like the most fascinating people on earth.
  2. We’re not to approach his bed, which he feels protective about; instead, we call him to us. (See Scrumptious Lamb Treats above.)
  3. Most importantly, he’s not allowed to charge towards the door when people arrive but has to wait four or five feet back., muzzled and on a leash.  As Lezle says, “He doesn’t get to decide who comes in.”

Given his improvement thus far, Lezle thinks that with six months of training, his over-protective instinct will be curbed.

Six months?  Can I do it?

“Watch me.”

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