The Farmer has surpassed me as the Alpha in this pack. How
did it happen? I am the one who gets up in the wee hours of the morning to let
the Ferg out for his morning constitutional. I am the one who feeds, bathes and
plays with the dog. It is me who….wait a minute. I’ve been trained by a puppy.
He has me scheduled and ordered me to do his bidding with a simple whine. The
Farmer doesn’t respond to such prompts. He is deaf in one ear.
I’m not sure exactly when it happened but at some point the
Farmer managed to usurp the title of Leader of the Pack. Fergus has decided
that his word trumps mine, every time.
“Bed time, Fergus.” Dog ignores woman, looks at man, curls
up on man’s feet in front of TV.
“Get off that couch, Fergus.” Dog just rolls his eyes at me.
The Farmer shows up at the door and dog bolts off of couch and onto floor,
begins innocently licking his paw as if he were there all along.
I have read “Fifteen Dogs” by Andre Alexis. I know how this
works. Mama’s got to get her alpha groove back.
Dog trainers say you have to exert your authority and
maintain it, from the beginning. I thought I did all the right things but I
must have slipped up at some point. Perhaps I got down on the floor and let the
puppy slobber all over me too much. The Farmer doesn’t do that. I decided to do
some research.
Dog experts on the Web say you must first train a pup to
sit, come and stay. You can use dog treats to reinforce this. You have to teach
them their name and to follow alongside you on a leash. You’re not supposed to
let the dog run ahead and pull you on a walk. Hmm. Clearly we have some
retraining to do.
Even when walking through a doorway in a house you are
supposed to make the dog come back and follow you. He is not supposed to lead
in any circumstances. Humans first in all cases. And if he jumps up from
excitement when you come home, you are supposed to ignore his bad behavior
until he is calm. You aren’t supposed to yell at him to get down. That one is
going to be the most difficult to teach, I think. Mostly because it drives me
nuts when he jumps up on me.
At least we have managed to keep Fergus off our bed. He
tries, but has yet to succeed in launching himself up onto the bed when we are
lounging. I realize I have only a short window of opportunity to reclaim my
alpha status and get him trained to stay off any of our special furniture
before he is suddenly big enough to get up there.
If we aren’t careful, we could wake up to realize one day
that we have lost one third of our king-sized bed to a large, hairy mutt. I
have heard stories from other dog owners about slobber on their pillow and
sleep interrupted by canine snoring. I have enough trouble getting a good
night’s sleep. I’m going to avoid this catastrophe at all costs.
Fergus, a Golden Retriever, is very smart. So at least we
have that going for us. I swear he has already learned that scratching on the
door is neither allowed nor necessary. He literally knocks on the door once to
be let back into the house. From the inside, he just sits at the door quietly
until we notice and let him out. If we are distracted, he whines. I might have
even suggested he use his voice once or twice when he tried to scratch the
door. In some way, he understands me.
The other thing we are learning about Goldens is they really
like to be in the same room with their people. We barricade him from the room
where we are eating or cooking, but he sits just outside the gate. When allowed
in, it’s the people he wants to see, more than the food.
It’s a good thing I ‘gave up’ on my vegetable garden because
I clearly need to spend less time weeding ungrateful plants and more time
training the dog.
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