Day 16: House Rules

There are only a few rules in the Kees household that aren't up to interpretation:
1. Never leave the paper towel roll empty
2. Never leave a nearly empty gin bottle on the shelf
3. Never growl at the person who feeds you

Seeing as Kevin is out of town, I'll give you one guess as to what happened today.

I can't say as this was a complete surprise; and despite good advice given to me by Fred's namesake, I saw it coming and ignored all of the warning signs.

Over the past three weeks, Fred has transitioned from my loyal employee to completely self employed. I had shrugged of Sunday as a slump, but today when we hit the club pond, I was back to a wrestling match at the water's edge. Everything from his focus to his delivery was miserable. Ironically his line (yes his, not mine) was good and he came straight back through the water, but any casual onlooker could tell that I was only there to drive the car.

After Fred's blind, I went to put him back on the chain gang. When I reached down to get his collar, he gave a full on growl. Needless to say; this didn't end well. I felt a little silly as a grown woman tackling her dog and biting his lip and growling back...but a trainer I worked with a long time ago told me to do that if I ever needed it, because it puts the argument in dog language and is much more effective than other "human" punishments.

I followed this up with heeling and obedience. Even during Fred's favorite "free time" at the end of the training session I kept him at tight heel. I think the point got across, but tonight's antics have let me realize that I will need to work extra hard to ensure that Fred understands who the boss is. Its not a pleasant or fun part of dog training; but its a necessary one!