It's dog's life...by Sheila Claydon

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Apart from the horse in the background, the cover of Mending Jodie's Heart doesn't immediately make you think of animals! It's very misleading because two of the book's main characters are in fact  Buckmaster, an incredibly well trained horse, and Blue, an old Labrador dog. A lot of birds feature too. I found them all incredibly interesting to write about and learned a lot while I was doing so.

Why am I telling you this? Well writing about them came to mind when I began training my dog...or maybe I should say started re-training my dog!  She is 4 years old and, like the fictional Buckmaster and Blue, generally very good. She likes other dogs and people, and can be walked off leash (away from traffic) without any worries at all. She is also fine indoors except for her latest habit, which is to ask to go into the garden then, when the door is opened, to rush out at warp speed barking as she goes. This mindless barking then continues intermittently until I go out and point towards the house, whereupon she immediately stops and dutifully trots indoors.  I have no idea where this very irritating habit came from but I do know it needs to be stopped. Unfortunately, until now, instead of working towards a cure I think I've been making it worse.

As you can see from the photos, butter wouldn't melt she is so cool and well-behaved...except when that door is opened when she turns into a whirling dervish, and now I understand why.  My irritation and consequent need to try to stop her barking means I am giving her attention every time she runs outside. She loves this and, in her own doggy way, has decided that because I immediately call her or fetch her I must like what she's doing. So she just does it some more!

Well now I've learned the answer and although it will take a couple of weeks of concentration from both of us, I've been assured it will work.  What do we have to do? Well for a start from now on she doesn't go out into the garden unless she is on a long leash.  Next I have to open the door a fraction and, as soon as she tries to run out, close it again, and I have to do this repeatedly until she calms down and sits quietly beside me. Then I open the door, step outside, and block her if she tries to follow me, waiting until she sits down again. Only then do I invite her outside and let her roam about on an extender lead.

Going indoors is the same thing in reverse. She has to sit outside while I enter the house and wait until I invite her inside. She is praised once her leash is removed but no treats are involved because learning that she receives treats on leaving and re-entering the house would just give us another problem.

And guess what, it works!  We started with her bouncing up and down like a mad thing today as soon as I touched the door handle, but within less than a minute she was sitting quietly beside me waiting for a command. The trot around the garden was painless (except for the rain - one of the hazards of dog ownership) and she sat and waited to be invited back in without being told.

She is highly intelligent and always eager to please, so I am now very hopeful. By the time the sun comes out again, something that is not forecast any time soon, she might be off leash again and trotting around the garden in almost silence. We don't mind an odd bark at a squirrel or pigeon or even a sudden noise from next door, but continual mindless barking? No way!

She might have been ultra cute as a puppy but that is no excuse for bad manners, something she learned once and is now having to learn all over again.  Oh, if only we could use the same technique on people!