« Kindergarten Days... | Main | A Heavy Heart »
September 08, 2006
What a work out!
So, as I had mentioned earlier we did some training with Beethoven yesterday. He's our big dog that is part rotty part reriever and he's always been a handful thus leading to the fact that he's pretty much spent most of his life on a run and as an outdoor dog. He's getting older now though and a bit too aggressive when we let him run for a while so I wanted to see about some obedience classes for him.
I'm beat! The trainer made a home visit and we worked with him for over two hours and I thought I'd collapse from sheer exhaustion before we got done! OMG, he's more of a handful than I had anticipated!!! She has renamed him TARZAN and that is putting it too mildly!
He came along pretty well though by the end of the session. And...she even brought along her VERY WELL trained Dobie whom Beethoven went absolutely ballistic over when he saw her and I mean BALLISTIC! He was frothing at the mouth and everything. The dobie wouldn't even look at him, she had this look about her like, "What an IDIOT he is!"
So, we finally managed to get the two to walk together for quite a ways which was a HUGE feat because I didn't think Beethoven would be able to do it, but he did! He's very trainable, but the aggression towards other dogs is a BIG concern for me.
The kids and I and hubby took him for a long walk last night after supper and he did beautifully! We were all so impressed with is heeling and stopping and sitting and staying focused, but then...just before getting home he spotted the new neighbor's dogs, they started coming near and well...it wasn't a pretty site. I managed to get him back on track and home again, but it really upset me that he gets so vicious!
The trainer says neutering will help a lot and after last night I'm all for it! So sorry to say Beethoven, but the TESTIS are coming off!
Posted by tracey at September 8, 2006 02:18 AM