[Dailydrool] Dog training

[Pam McQuade]

<<In puppy obedience class the down was very difficult. With his head at 
vacuum cleaner height to begin with why should he be on his belly to pick up 
the treat. We do have some unique challenges with bassets. They are way too
smart.>>

I had to laugh at this. None of my hounds have ever really learned a down 
command, perhaps because Jane was so very good at training me to believe 
that bassets, being low, do not need it.

I tried, once, to follow some directions that told you to sweep a treat from 
the nose level, down and out, to get a dog to lie down. It didn't work. Jane 
just moved forward. Since I do not believe I should spend extra time having 
the dog train me, lessons quickly stopped.

Having said that, I have trained Abner to do a fairly reliable sit--he would 
probably be more reliable if his back never hurt him when he did it (or at 
least he's convinced me that's why he sometimes only wants to half sit). We 
have worked hard on it, since when he came to me he had no idea what the 
word meant. And he is really improving--at least most days.

But most days, I have to wonder who is training whom. All my bets are on the 
fact that I am the well-trained one. After all, I boost two elderly hounds 
up onto my couch, then don't have room to sit there myself. I boost one 
elderly hound onto my bed at night, and by morning I'm often on the couch, 
because I lack room on the mattress.

I love dog training. The next hound who comes in these doors will have 
plenty of it, so I can access my couch and bed. But with three elderly 
hounds, one of whom I actually need to train not to bite me, I don't think 
I'll be doing any fancy training any time soon. Since my definition of fancy 
is way lower than most folks, don't even bother to take me to task, or I'll 
send you Abner to deal with!

I love bassets. They've given me motivation to train the next hound I get... 
or maybe the one after that... or after that.... Well, you get the idea.
Pam, well-trained food slave to the Dashing Bassets