The Screaming Viking

Today was day 1 of Sarge Boot Camp.  I signed us up for an obedience class at Red River North Dog Obedience Club.  I was a bit nervous about taking the dog into a situation where there are going to be many other dogs that are obviously not all that well behaved.  Given that my main concern with the Sarge is how he acts around smaller animals this probably wasn’t the best situation to walk in to…never the less, we went!

The class cost me $40.00 for 5 weeks of once a week one hour training classes.  I went in to this class with the attitude that it’s as much for me as it is for the dog.  I’m here to learn some techniques for training the Sarge, some way to keep his attention and get him to respond better to me instantly no matter what else has his focus at the time.

We walk in to this building and there are people with their dogs right at the door…generally not a good idea.  The Sarge gets all hot and bothered seeing these new dogs…he gets so god damn excited.  He doesn’t growl, bark or otherwise act aggressive…but he clearly wants to run right over to every dog and “play”.  I told him to sit and he did…but it’s like an antsy kid…he sits, kinda dances around and keeps looking up at me for the O.K. to run loose.  It was hot in there…hotter than the fires of hell and eternal damnation.  It didn’t take me very long at all to start sweating bullets and I can’t imagine the dog was comfortable at all.  The added heat to the environment could not have been conducive to a good training environment.

The initial lessons were very simplistic.  Teaching you how to “properly” walk the dog and the “focus” ideas are the ones that I’ll find the most useful from this first session.  I had decided on Friday when he damn near killed the cat that we’d work on some “alpha male” walking technique.  I assumed it would be the dog walking behind me the instructor at the class told us to have the dog walk even with our inseam.  So the first lesson was to have us all walk around in a big circle with the dog next to us.  This was a bit difficult for the Sarge, there were far too many distractions going on.  It took a bit of effort to keep him going in the proper direction and not try to go “play” with other dogs or people.  The instructor would have us make a lap or two around the room, then stop and have the dog sit.  This was no problem for the Sarge, as soon as we stopped and I told him to sit and he sat right down.  Some people had a lot of problems with this part of it.

After the walk and sit deal we were to do the “down” thing.  Again, like with sit, this was something the Sarge is very familiar with.  Everyone was doing it and the instructor walked over to me and asked if he could do it.  I looked at the Sarge said “down” and boom he’s down.  They also wanted us to do “stay”.  I looked at the Sarge, he looked at me..we both kinda shrugged…I told him to stay and he stayed.  We also did the “focus” command.  This is something I’d done a couple of times with him but never really worked on.  It took him a few tries and he was doing it O.K. clearly he’s only looking at the treat.  Hopefully we can get this one worked out.

The Sarge has “sit” “stay” “down” worked out pretty well.  It’s the walking and focus commands that he needs help with.  I think if we can get those hammered out pretty good he’ll be on the ball with everything else.  I -really- need to do something about his excitement level when he is around new people or other animals…I’m not sure how to handle this at all.

We went to the farmstead this weekend and the Sarge almost didn’t make it back with us.  In fact, if it wasn’t for the woman or the kid I would be putting him up for give away today.  I’m really sick of this dogs need to try and kill every animal smaller than him.  In our own yard it’s not a huge deal, if something is there it probably needs to be taken care of…I’ve got no problem with this.  The huge issue comes in when he thinks he needs to do this to all small animals no matter where they are.  It’s to the point where I can’t let him off the leash if there are going to be other animals around.  I’ve never had to think about this type of issue before.  Growing up we didn’t take the dogs with us anywhere and if some animal came onto the yard it was fine for them to dismantle it.  I have no concept of how to train this out of him.  Maybe it’s something I’ll have to live with forever…which would really suck.

We rolled into the yard around 5pm or so.  The folks and the kid were up at the lake messing around with the old man’s new personal sized pontoon thingy.  We let the dogs out and figured they could burn off some nervous energy.  They rounded the corner of the car…and there it was…across the yard was the black cat the old man has been taking care of for a few months now.  The cat is probably around 3-5 months old and is the only one out of the 4 that were dropped off that has hung around.  The dogs locked eyes…and took off like pack of wolves after this poor cat.  I figured for sure the cat would run…hell no, he arched his back hissed…and got his ass kicked.  He might have taken the first quick step away, but the little black dog knocked the cat down and the Sarge came in for the kill.  He had a hold of the cat, and managed to toss it in the air.  Sara and I were hauling ass over to the skirmish and we managed to get the dog off the cat before he killed it. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been my experience that the Sarge’s mentality at this point in his development is about on par with a 5 year old.  He can listen for the most part, knows some commands…can feed himself if you put the food and water in front of him and gets really bitchy when he’s tired.  He has very few core needs, food, water and going outside.  If one of these needs are not met the Sarge with freak the fook out.  It’s quite a scene if you haven’t seen it before.  He pants like he’s hot, won’t sit still and wants to fight/wrestle constantly.  If he doesn’t get a rise out of us or get what he needs he will taught the other dog.  He tries to pick on her and get into a semi-play fight.  They don’t all out fight, but they wrestle a little more vigorously than if they are playing.

So last night the Sarge is going through this little routine almost from the time he walks through the door to come in the house.  I didn’t figure he needed to go outside because he just came in…that leaves food and water.  He had food in his dish and there was some water.  The problem with the water though is he needs fresh water pretty much constantly.  He won’t drink it if it’s a little slobbery or a bit warm…even if it’s him that has made it a touch slobbery.  I clean out the water bowl and give him fresh water, he drinks some and is still worked up.  I’ve got no idea what his problem is.  After about 20min of this crap I told the kid to take him outside.

The Sarge was outside about 10 min and I hear him playing with what sounds like a large chunk of plastic.  I look out the downstairs window and here comes the Sarge throwing his food bowl by the window and knocking it around.  He kicks it past the window one way…throws it back the other way and comes over to the window and stares at me, with what seems to be a “do you get it now asshole?” look on his face.  The kid fills up his food and he chills a little.  I’ve no idea why the food in the house wasn’t good enough for him…but whatever.  He’s done this a few times.  If he gets pissed off enough he will throw around whatever bowl corresponds with his need.  It’s semi-handy with the food bowl outside as we put that one in the dog house to keep the food dry.  When he’s hungry he’ll take it out of the dog house and knock it over to the kennel door.  This is the first time he’s gotten pissed off enough to bat it around the yard.

Back in the day on the farm we had this German Shepard cross that, as far as I’m concerned, was the smartest dog I’d ever seen.  This dog would (I shit you not) bring it’s food bowl to the door of the house and drop it on the deck when it wanted food.  After we put some food in it, the dog would pick it up and take it out to the front yard to where it could lay down and eat and (presumably) see up and down the road.  I’ve no idea what kind of training or whatever went in to this or how we promoted this behavior, but it would be awfully handy if the Sarge would bring his food bowl over when he’s hungry.  He throws it around pretty good, but I’d like him to grab it and bring it to us….maybe we can train this in to him.

I’ve been trying to make a conscious effort to walk the Sarge more often.  I think getting him out and about a bit more will help his excitement when he gets around new people and animals.  When we’re off the yard he doesn’t bark at other dogs…and in all fairness it generally isn’t him that starts the barking when dogs walk by the yard.  The female gets pissed and that stokes up the Sarge.

We walk for about 30min or so and as we are getting back to the house the UPS truck is pulling up.  I wait in the driveway for the dude to bring me my package.  Just like when anyone comes up to him the Sarge starts getting really excited, dancing around and so forth.  I tell hm to sit and he does…but he’s still really antsy.  You can tell it’s taking a lot of effort to sit there without doing his little dance.  The UPS guy pretty much ignores him and walks up to me…well apparently the UPS guy got too close, didn’t acknowledge the dog, or giving me the box was a problem…in any case the Sarge got pissed.  I hadn’t heard this dog growl other than when we are playing and he does his little playful growl.  He growled at the UPS guy…like a deep, pissed off “watch it asshole” growl.  The UPS guy asked me if he was going to get bit…and I told him I didn’t think so…he didn’t and the Sarge didn’t make an aggressive move other than growling.

It was a little disconcerting initially, but looking back the Sarge didn’t lunge at the guy and I’m pretty confident that if the situation escalated like me raising my voice or this dude making some sort of aggressive move the Sarge would have gotten in to the ruckus or at least made some noise.  I’m pretty content with his reaction over all.  There was no blood shed and he’s doing his job.  My concern isn’t for myself or that I “need a dog to protect me” but if the kid is home alone and someone comes around that shouldn’t be…maybe the dogs would cause enough of a distraction she can get to a phone or something.  Most likely that’s just a “touchy feely” thing for me to pacify my own concerns about situations like that…but whatever.