The Dog House Diaries :
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The Good (Saturday)
Well, Barkley has either accepted his place in the pack, or he’s just playing the long game.
All day today he’s been an absolute dream, cute, cuddly, loving and obedient. It’s so out of character that I’ve starting asking him “who are you and what have you done with my dog?”
When one of my friends popped round to meet him, I filled her in beforehand on how crazy he’d been the day before, warning her to tuck away anything that might incite the madness, but he let her rub his belly and acted suspiciously like a child of the corn.
I was seriously gobsmacked. My lovely friend had bought him some great treats, one of which being a very bouncy light up ball, which I desperately wanted to give him but was terrified to do so after yesterday’s mania. I gave in…warning him as I did “if you don’t want the spray, learn to obey.”
Well he did. He played nicely and then went and lied down.
WTF?
Our evening was spent relaxing and watching a bit of tv without having to jump up and down and shout every five minutes. It was lovely.
We may even be able to take the furniture down from the back of the sofa at this rate!
The Bad (Sunday)
Well the truce is definitely over this morning. As I came down the stairs towards the stair gate that we’ve put at the bottom, Barkley had an uncanny resemblance to Jack Nicholson in ‘The Shining’ trying to break through it, all teeth and axes.
Even worse, the water pistol has lost its magic powers.
The Ugly (Monday)
Tonight we took him for his first proper behavioural training session at one of the clubs where we took our old dog. We’ve been doing training in the garden with him up till now, but this was going to involve other dogs, other people and a new environment. What could possibly go wrong?
Stupidly I offered to do the first session with him while Jon buggered off to play football. He’d been doing really well with his commands in the garden (Barkley, not Jon), but the second we got into the community centre with all the distractions, it was like he’d become deaf.
He had absolutely no interest whatsoever in me, my commands, or even the treats that I’d brought along to bribe him with. All he wanted to do was play with the other dogs who were ALL bigger than him, and not interested in such a little pipsqueak.
So what did he do? He threw his toys out of the pram and embarrassed me like a toddler throwing a tantrum in the middle of the supermarket. Not only did he rip my hands to shreds trying to grab his treats while we did heel work, but he even managed to draw blood from the instructor, who has said in no uncertain terms that he needs to learn some manners!
My dog is a thug.
Sherry x
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