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Sunday, July 20, 2014




Happy Graduates Kindergarten

Author's note:  We're departing from our usual Cuba themes to tell Happy's story.  This is the third posting on our ongoing effort to incorporate Happy into our family.

After Happy's first five weeks with us, Don Murray, our dog training expert, kept Happy in his home for two weeks so he could concentrate on learning certain commands.  He arrived back home a week ago, and the training of the people (Charlene and me) began.  Don demonstrated Happy's progress.  He knows sit, down, come, heel, stay, off and place. You may not recognize "off" and "place."  Off is the equivalent of "no."  It's a command to stop whatever the dog is doing.  "Place" is a command to return to his place—in Happy's case, a lightweight trampoline bed about 18 by 42 inches in size.  There, Happy is the boss of his world.  Place is a good starting point for whatever practice session we want to work on.

We knew we humans would be going to school too.  Homework is several short sessions of practice for each of us every day.  I'm pretty good at heel, place, and stay.  Charlene has mastered come, sit, and place.  Nobody said this was going to be easy—and it isn't.

Happy is a much quieter dog thanks to his two week visit with Don.  He is still chewing, but he mostly concentrates on his own toys now, not our shoes.  His love at first sight affairs with Peachy and Princess continue at full tilt and his interest in our six cats is softening to curiosity, rather than challenges.  The anxiety level in our house is moderating.

Happy expects company when he goes to the fenced back yard for a pit stop.  We're beginning to get all three dogs on the same bathroom schedule.  This is a major improvement, as house training was (and to some extent still is) a big worry in his first weeks with us.  If we can soon pronounce Happy housebroken, it will be largely thanks to the examples set by Peachy and Princess, our two older dogs, who are trained better than anyone has a right to expect.

Don's website at sarasotadogwizard.com tells us about the advantages of his type of training.  We expect to have Happy be a contented, cooperative family member after training.  We are beginning to see now that that goal will be achieved.  I doubt he will ever like the amazing dancing Border Collies you see on talent shows, but we don't need to have that level of performance.  We're just looking for a loving happy member of our little menagerie.  He's on his way there now, and I hope he will be as happy as we are that Charlene found him for us.

Les Inglis