Finally Home-Lessons on Life from a Free-Spirited Dog by Elizabeth Parker

Author:Elizabeth Parker [Parker, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elizabeth Parker
Published: 2010-03-02T05:00:00+00:00

He walked over, introduced himself , and simply said “M ay I?” before grabbing hold of the leash. He whispered a few words to Buddy , and we could have sworn that Buddy was an award-winning show dog, and that he and our neighbor were long-lost pals.

Our neighbor even wondered if he had met this dog before. Buddy strolled calmly, right by his side, and did not pull one bit. It was amazing. We were in disbelief as we had been struggling for months to get this dog to listen, and it took our neighbor all of five minutes .

“ So, h ow did you do that?” In the months that we had owned Buddy, we ha d never been able to keep him five feet in front of us, much less by our side. To make us feel a little bit better, it turned out our neighbor was a dog trainer. He demonstrated once again, explained what he ’d done, and then handed me the leash . I finally felt confiden t that I could control this dog. It was all so simple .

As fast as that thought had entered my mind was as fast as that thought subsided. Somehow, I don’t think I appeared quite as graceful. As I stood up straight, I grabbed the leash and began my walk with Buddy. I tried mirroring my neighbor’s walking technique, but Buddy pulled me without any effort.

He pulled so much that within one minute my sneaker flew off of one foot , and I was chasing him down the road with one sneaker on and one sneaker off. I had both hands on the leash, trying to gain some type of dignity and composure . I’m sure it was quite a comedy act for anyone watching.

I did not find it so funny, as m y face was blushing with embarrassment and my hands were raw from the crazy dog pulling me. I would not dare show my hands. I felt like a complete failure and knew that Buddy was just laughing in the only way that dogs could.

While I mumbled curses under my breath, Michael and our neighbor kind of chuckled. Our new friend proceeded to talk us out of the good old choker collar and turn ed us on to the harness instead . This was like a skit from a magic show to put on, but it yielded great result s . I think Buddy knew how to put th e thing on better than we did.

To our pleasant surprise, Buddy pulled much less. We learned to hold the leash midway to keep him closer, loosening the leash when he was being good. We tried to make him focus on us instead of us focusing on him.

The leash actually served as an extension of my arm, so if I was tense, the dog would sense that by the tension of my grip on the leash. Ideally, according to my neighbor, we wanted to be able to be in command of the dog while there is still plenty of slack in the leash.

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