A few years ago, we were visiting my cousin's house and I was impressed by their dog. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to hang out with him while we were there...he didn't like visitors, but just before we left, they commanded the dog to go to his kennel.
And immediately, the dog went up the stairs and went into his kennel.
Impressive.
Now, it's been a couple of years since that happened and my memory is a little fuzzy, but I believe it happened that way. I was reminded of that memory the other day when I passed by our stairs and our dog was behind the gate. This happens when we need to dog to stay out of the kitchen, or when someone comes to the door. He's just so excited to meet the visitors that he loses control. He'll bark and jump up on the people--not to attack them, but to someone who doesn't know the dog, it could appear that way.
To remedy the problem, we tell the dog to go "down" and we put up the gate. He's such a well-trained dog that he knows when someone comes to the door, he needs to go downstairs. He's also such a well-trained dog that even though he could jump over the gate in one bound or simply push it over with his nose, he doesn't. Being afraid of the sound the gate makes as it smashes on the floor is the main reason he doesn't do that.
Dogs are amazing creatures. My cousin's dog, our dog--as far as those commands go--they're great. Of course, this isn't always the case. And on those occasions, our dog sometimes goes to dog jail.
We're just glad he's so good at obeying. But, oh that look he gives us when he's in jail...classic "Please let me out" look.
No comments:
Post a Comment