Funny Game
Neighbor dog Molly is about as sweet as they come, and it's easy-as-can-be for Pappy and me to pick her up on the way to the dog park. Her owners say she gets so excited anticipating weekend mornings. With other dogs she's not at all aggressive, and wouldn't hurt a fly-- except for her aim to collide with other dogs like a sandbag fired out of a cannon, but that's not out of meanness. She's great to have along, but for one thing...
Above all other things she craves someone chasing her. I've worked around her stealing Pappy's fetching ball and running away by just bringing a second ball. But then when it's time to go, she's got the ball in her mouth, her tail is wagging away, and she won't come or let anybody corral her. We used to have Molly over in the mornings before work, but had to discontinue that because it took fifteen minutes to get a leash on her. She has always been good at the dog park about coming when it was time to go, but this weekend she played her funny chase-me game both visits. If I take Pappy out to the car she looks a little forlorn for a second, but as soon as I come back she's ready to play. The only way I have had to get her to stop is to give her the hairy eyeball and repeat "bad dog"; she reacts to faces and disapproval more than Pappy. Unfortunately that wasn't working, and I don't enjoy browbeating a dog at the park.
So now I'm reduced to bribery, or training as some would call it. I'll try bringing along a little cheese (aka "Canine Kryptonite") to see if that is a stronger draw, but I have a bad feeling that she's more interested in the game. If it doesn't work, old Molly's going to be mighty sad come weekend mornings when she's staying home.
9 comments:
Well, she's lucky to have you and Pappy for neighbors in the first place. Maybe her parents can try teaching her to "come" so she can rejoin in the weekend festivities?
The Fleas
Poor Molly. Hopefully her parents can teach her to knock that off so she can still go with you and pappy
amjldOh, don't leave her. Please. If you like the Dog Whisperer check his advice for how to break her of the habit that ends up making her miserable.
Molly sounds like a sweetie-pie with a wonderful sense of humor. I think the cheese idea is your best bet and another idea would be to practice on a long line calling her to you, giving her a piece of cheese and then letting her go again so she doesn't always think that coming to you means an end to the fun. Once she seems to have the idea and you're willing to bet $20 that she will come when you call, you can take off the long line (but don't throw it away--even dogs sometimes "forget" the rules).
The best long lines are just a piece of light weight nylon rope tied to a clip at one end and about 15' long. that way she can wear it while she plays but if you need to catch her you can step on the rope as she goes whizzing by :-)
I like to play catch-me-if-you-can also. I don't understand why Mom hates that game. She kinda turns red in the face.
William Tell
funny dogs
Personally, I'd do ANYTHING for cheese. I'm hoping it'll work for Molly too. J x
Molly does sound like a handful!
You definitely have tried all the tricks that my Mom uses on Kana (her brother in law's dog). He does a similar thing. The treats do work (well, they do for Kana) but she's had to change them up quite a bit.
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