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Sunday 23 October 2011

The Harness-At last, Happiness I have found you!!!

So here I am, a full fledged puppy owner for just under 5 months now.  I've taken pup to training classes, I've tried positive reinforcement, I've ignored the dog, I've tried to be dominant, but every single time, the "walk" has always been a nightmare.

When we first got pup, he weighed in at 11 lbs.  He was light enough to drag around on his leash, but he never made it easy for me.  He would turn his back on me.  I would try everything to get him to turn around, but he wouldn't budge.  As he got older, he would firmly plant his front paws on the ground.  I couldn't pull him even if I used all of my strength.  Believe me, at 130lbs, I was sure I could outweigh a pup.....oh how wrong I was.

Then as he started getting bigger and bigger, he not only pulled me down the street, but if he saw another dog and got excited, he would pull away on his leash so much that he would make choking noises with his throat.  Of course, being the conscientious owner that I was, I would loosen my grip in order to not "damage his vocal chords".  Of course I would never damage them, hubby knew it, son knew it, heck, even puppy knew it.  However, pup would play the choking card just so that I would run along beside him and accommodate his wily ways.

For a while, the walk got better.  Pup would walk very well with me.  Occasionally, crazy-eyes would come in and he'd put every Kleenex (used) he could find on the road into his mouth...but those frustrating times were few and far between.   Then a crazy thing happened.  Pup turned 6 months old..and all the training, walking, disciplining that we had done in the last 4 months kinda flew out the window.  Pup no longer came when he was called, he started biting his leash again (we bought yet another one-#7 I think).  He continually pulled us and tried to get onto every lawn in the city.  Absolutely EVERYTHING went into his mouth.  In short, our lovely 6 month old pup became that 2 month old brat again.  The only difference, however, was that pup was no longer 11 lbs.  Weighing in at over 41 lbs, pup was getting harder and harder to control.

"This can't be happening", I cried to my husband. " I feel like we're going backwards instead of moving forward".  Hubby quickly got on-line and discovered that pups go through a rebellious stage at 6 months.  Call it "terrible two's", call it "rebellious teens", all I knew was that pup was getting harder and harder to control.

Now, two things happen when you're walking down the street with a demon-dog.  Either, people look at you with sympathy and try to console you by telling you he'll grow out of it by 2 years old (what!!!!!!), or, they give you unsolicited advice. Hubby and I seem to get a lot of the latter.  People have told us to control pup with treats...(yeah, like demon-dog needs more sugar in his system).  People have also told us to use the "soft-pull" muzzle.  So, hubby and I went out and bought one.  Of course we probably didn't put it on right and pup had chewed right through it in the time it took for us to close the garage door and make it down to the end of our driveway!!!

I refused to walk him for a while.  It was just too frustrating.  Pup, pulled and pulled.  I was always prying garbage out of his mouth.  Just 2 days ago, he jumped up and put his head in a trash bin by a bus stop.  He came out with a pack of empty cigarettes!!!  I got bitten several times as I tried to pry open his jaws. I pulled the pack out piece by piece.  It was horrible.  I kept imagining my dog taking up a terrible habit!!!!

Then, just yesterday, I turned to my hubby during our morning coffee and suggested we get a harness.  He gave me a "what do we have to lose?" look, and off we went to buy one.  As soon as we came back home, we put it on pup.  I took the leash and led the way.....it was the walk from heaven!!!!!


For more blogs, please visit http://cluelesspuppyowner.blogspot.com/ and http://thecluelesspuppyowner.blogspot.com/

3 comments:

  1. Hi Clueless,

    We too have a PWD pup in Montreal. Ours is named Tulip and is 7 months old. Tulip is presently attending a weekly puppy class at the Blue Ribbon Canine Centre in Dorval. I came upon your blog last night and have had some good laughs reading about your trials and tribulations. These pups are little loveable devils! Perhaps we could share pup clues, maybe meet in a dog park.
    cheers,
    Judith

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  2. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic.dog harness

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  3. My PWD is 12 weeks old, her trainer this past weekend told me to use a leash instead of the harness..... but my pup is so much easier to handle with the harness...I was hesitant to follow the suggestions from the trainer. my gut was telling me to keep using the harness. thanks for posting this! I will continue to use the harness. I had a feeling the trainer was not 100% right on her recommendation.

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