Progress, steady

Patriotic Pup

     Fast forward to a 3 1/2-year-old Beau. At 15 months, he was a pistol beyond managing on most days. I will admit, I was less than hopeful that he would become a well-behaved dog. Today, I can say that he has made a lot of progress on the journey to dog sainthood. You know those saintly dogs. They walk calmly at the side of their master; they play quietly in their backyard without barking at everyone; they keep their teeth to themselves. 

     Beau isn't there yet, but he has calmed down substantially. He no longer does a body slam on me coming off of a full speed run. Usually, I can get him to come in the house. Treats insure compliance. But he has learned there are rooms where he is not allowed, and he is pretty good about not taking food off the table. He rests his chin on the table and gazes with longing at me while I eat, but that's pretty much as far as it goes. Oh, wait. He did lick the end of a chicken leg the other day. Well, still, he didn't wrap his teeth around it and run off with it.

     It took some doing, but I did manage to get him to pose for the above picture. This was the best out of about 25 shots.  He does sit on command, usually without a treat. He does give me paw and high five and he loves to play which hand is the treat in. He is correct at guessing about 85 percent of the time.

     So he barks a lot; annoyed neighbors are not amused. That's okay. I am not amused by most of the things they do, but I am a nicer person about it. I recently invested in one of those collars that beeps, vibrates or jolts when I press a button on the device's remote control. This is about the fifth one I have purchased. They work great for about a month and then not again. That is the point I am at with this unit. It doesn't seem to be working any more. Vibrate and sound have worked wonders. I do not want to zap him. Alas, I may have to send it back and see about another one.

     The big issue he has is leaving the neighbors alone. For some reason he is wild about them. The collar has helped, but like the vet assistant said when he was a puppy, he will need high value treats. I don't know how much higher value treat I can give him when I have steak in my hands, and he would rather race back and forth along the fence line as the neighbor woman works on her garden. I don't want him to bother her. I usually can get him under control within about two to three minutes; however, at 90 pounds, he is hard to slow down. I wonder if he needs more companionship. I have toyed with the idea of getting a second dog as a playmate for him. But he doesn't do well at doggie day care; they say he is anxious and won't play with the other dogs, but he loves the staff. He's a people dog. 

 

 

Instant Learner

Within the first week of our dog-master relationship, Beau nailed sit and shake. At that point, a piece of his dog food was incentive enough to drop his tush on command. Literally, he was sitting on command within about 4 minutes. That is all it took. I thought, "Wow, this is great. He wants to please. He's going to be such a sweet boy." And at 12 pounds he was.

He learned High Five quickly. And when I said, "Down," he literally threw himself on the floor. At his second vet visit, he impressed everyone with his repertoire of "tricks." I glowed as a proud pet parent. Everyone there, from the vet to the technicians and office staff, smiled and cooed at Beau. He was little and so cute. He was irresistible. Again, at 15 pounds, he was.

That was early April. By the time he was in for his last shots the first week of June, one of the staff said, "He is going to need high value treats, like hot dogs." She played with him for a few minutes, putting him through his paces. It was all I could do to keep from saying, "Would you like to come home with us?" She possessed the skills I needed: speed and coordination.

By the middle of June, I dubbed Beau "The Streak." Fast cannot begin to describe his movement. He could in one swoop take anything out of my hand, grab glasses off my face and beat me into a room that should have been closed off. Like all puppies and babies, Beau learned by putting things in his mouth. He learned that if he tugged hard enough on my clothes, they ripped. If he got his nose into my pocket, he could grab it and tear it out of my pants. From there he moved to grabbing my shorts and pulling them down. If he grabbed my underwear with my pants, he could depants me -- which he frequently liked to do in the backyard. I knew what to do to respond to these unwanted behaviors. I just was not fast enough to do it. I was too busy pulling up my pants.

The one thing that all the dog training books, puppy class trainers and labradoodle information web sites don't say is that to train a labradoodle, you gotta be coordinated, fast and eventually pretty strong, at least during their formative months.

In hind sight, I should have picked up on the seemingly benign statements from conversations with people who know labradoodles:

• Labradoodle breeder: "I had only one puppy returned, by a lady about your age."
• Experienced owner:  "Good luck, good, good luck."
• Vet: "Beau is just a joyfully spirited pup."

Please know, I do love my Beau. I just need to get Superman or Supergirl's contact info.

Don't Be Fooled

At six weeks old, he received a name. Beau. At 10 weeks Beau had a name and a forever home. Lucky pup. At three months, he learned sit and shake. At six months, he went to puppy school and at seven months, he learned "Show me your belly." At 15 months, he has learned a lot. But he has not learned to keep his teeth to himself.

After losing my Wheaten Terrier who was nearly 14-years-old, I found myself lonesome and without an exercise partner. Once I was no longer taking my Wheatie Teddy on daily walks, I realized just how much exercise I was missing. It was either join a gym or get another dog. No contest. A health club is just that, but a dog provides exercise and so much more. So, I looked for my new house-mate.

I needed a dog that would be compatible with an allergy sufferer. Wheaties were great for that, but I didn't want a Teddy-look-alike. So I investigated other breeds and landed on Labradoodles. I believed the description about how these dogs are great companion dogs, smart and loving of their owners. These words describe Beau. He is all of those things, especially in the intelligence department. 

Curious is another description. He wants to know what is in a pocket, what is under a shirt, what is on the face. I didn't know just how challenging that curious quality would become. My first clue should have been when we were checking out a local dog park and I ran into another Doodle owner. She smiled when I said Beau was an eight-month Doodle. And then she said, I think compassionately, but with a bit of a chuckle, "Well, good luck, good, good luck."