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Found myself screwing up yesterday, this is mostly about getting frustrated and caught up in the moment. And finding yourself stuck in a bad loop before you realize it's happened. Bear with me.
First off, we live at the end of a dirt road. We allow barking on our property. Encourage it even. I allowed it to get alittle out of hand recently. So.....had a rough day at work yesterday. Came home. Wife already home. Dogs in fenced in part of the property around the side and back of the house. Generally my wife gets home alittle before me and lets them out. So Beau has been cooped up in the house for about 7 hrs, he's not yet 2 yrs old, he's fairly high energy, and he was INSANE yesterday when I pulled up. Barking and bouncing around like a wild animal behind the fence. This was excitement that I was home. Barking....barking.....barking... He always barks when I get home and he's outside. Perfectly normal. Yesterday was excessive. I was cranky. Should've known better. Did know better. Didn't listen to the sane part of my brain. For whatever reason, the other part of my brain decided that I needed to work on the excitement barking. Did I mention I was already cranky from the workday?
He didnt " hush " or " calm " when told. He knows what those mean btw. Ok then, I'll give him something to do instead of just being told to pipe down. Put him in a down. With the intention of walking around the side of the house ( where he cant see me and he knows I'm heading for that gate )to the backyard gate, entering yard, walking around the back of the house ( still out of view ) over to where he is downed and rewarding him with a game of tug. In my mind at the time this seemed like the right thing to do. Even though there was the little voice in my head saying " he's too excited to control himself right now dummy ". Of coarse he broke the down and met me at the back gate. Told him " nope " ( his negative marker ) and walked back around the front to where he was put in a down. Did it over. Same thing. Did that exact same thing at least a dozen times. At this point my idiot brain has taken over. It became a battle. Before I realized it it had become a sort of battle of wills. Bad training. Not good. Checked the time. We did this sort of loop for a good 40 minutes. I was more frustrated than him I think. My idiot brain was telling me not to give up before he did. After a long time I realized he was going to outlast me if we kept going like that. So then I got the idea to tether him to the fence post beside where I was downing him. ( by this time he was grumbling when downed but still complying. Lord knows why after the 20th time). I figured he'd be fussing up a storm when tethered like this. Nope. Not a peep, held his down. My wife watched while I went around the side of the house. Held his down no problem. No fighting the tether. Got to him, untethered, played tug. Did the whole thing over. 3rd time we did it without the tether. Held his down. Got a game of tug AND fetch for that. So we stopped on sort of a good note.
So the idiocy of all this aside, now I'm wondering....... Was he really too excited to hold his down.....or was he just refusing cause he knew he could- did I start the battle of wills or did he? Was there really a battle of wills? He calmly held his down while tethered, and the 3rd time untethered. Either way it was pretty ridiculous. I think I got determined and had some tunnel vision going on. Good thing for me he's a forgiving dog. Going to have to put some thought into the whole experience. But I thought some people might read this and at least get a chuckle out of my amatuer mistakes.
First off, we live at the end of a dirt road. We allow barking on our property. Encourage it even. I allowed it to get alittle out of hand recently. So.....had a rough day at work yesterday. Came home. Wife already home. Dogs in fenced in part of the property around the side and back of the house. Generally my wife gets home alittle before me and lets them out. So Beau has been cooped up in the house for about 7 hrs, he's not yet 2 yrs old, he's fairly high energy, and he was INSANE yesterday when I pulled up. Barking and bouncing around like a wild animal behind the fence. This was excitement that I was home. Barking....barking.....barking... He always barks when I get home and he's outside. Perfectly normal. Yesterday was excessive. I was cranky. Should've known better. Did know better. Didn't listen to the sane part of my brain. For whatever reason, the other part of my brain decided that I needed to work on the excitement barking. Did I mention I was already cranky from the workday?
He didnt " hush " or " calm " when told. He knows what those mean btw. Ok then, I'll give him something to do instead of just being told to pipe down. Put him in a down. With the intention of walking around the side of the house ( where he cant see me and he knows I'm heading for that gate )to the backyard gate, entering yard, walking around the back of the house ( still out of view ) over to where he is downed and rewarding him with a game of tug. In my mind at the time this seemed like the right thing to do. Even though there was the little voice in my head saying " he's too excited to control himself right now dummy ". Of coarse he broke the down and met me at the back gate. Told him " nope " ( his negative marker ) and walked back around the front to where he was put in a down. Did it over. Same thing. Did that exact same thing at least a dozen times. At this point my idiot brain has taken over. It became a battle. Before I realized it it had become a sort of battle of wills. Bad training. Not good. Checked the time. We did this sort of loop for a good 40 minutes. I was more frustrated than him I think. My idiot brain was telling me not to give up before he did. After a long time I realized he was going to outlast me if we kept going like that. So then I got the idea to tether him to the fence post beside where I was downing him. ( by this time he was grumbling when downed but still complying. Lord knows why after the 20th time). I figured he'd be fussing up a storm when tethered like this. Nope. Not a peep, held his down. My wife watched while I went around the side of the house. Held his down no problem. No fighting the tether. Got to him, untethered, played tug. Did the whole thing over. 3rd time we did it without the tether. Held his down. Got a game of tug AND fetch for that. So we stopped on sort of a good note.
So the idiocy of all this aside, now I'm wondering....... Was he really too excited to hold his down.....or was he just refusing cause he knew he could- did I start the battle of wills or did he? Was there really a battle of wills? He calmly held his down while tethered, and the 3rd time untethered. Either way it was pretty ridiculous. I think I got determined and had some tunnel vision going on. Good thing for me he's a forgiving dog. Going to have to put some thought into the whole experience. But I thought some people might read this and at least get a chuckle out of my amatuer mistakes.