Barking Blondes: Mischevous dogs
Hopefully, we all know our dogs. Their foibles along with their many winning ways. The responsible dog owner, when out walking in the park with dog off the lead, will scan the horizon for all potential hazards. The human radar should be alert enough to avoid such situations like a child with ice cream, a stray dog on heat, picnickers or anything else tempting to a dog.
The two of us pride ourselves on knowing, intuitively, what breed of dog annoys our own as well as what areas to avoid that may contain duck poo (yes, even that can taste delicious to a bull breed!)
So imagine our total humiliation this week when one of our beloveds ran off with another dog’s treasured ball! The colourful and obviously expensive toy belonged to a terrier whose stylish owner came from the posher side of the park. As our bulldog raced around the three of us, in circles, ball clamped firmly in her mouth like a grinning clown, it was obvious this was going to end badly. Nothing would entice her to drop it, and the more we attempted to bribe her with treats and endearments, the more she thought it was a game.
Whilst the terrier seemed unperturbed by this invasion on his property, its owner was furious.
“I can’t believe this”, she spat, “Is this how you train your dog? How do you ever manage to get round the park without similar disasters?”
It was pointless attempting to convince her that this was a one off. That we always had our own balls on us so that our dogs wouldn’t be distracted by other people’s property.
But as they say, “Every dog has it’s day” – and this day was obviously a red letter day.
Even the best-behaved dogs will have their ‘naughty’ moments. Whether your mutt rummages through handbags looking for lipsticks to eat, barks when you’re on the phone, or humps your trouser leg, this will be a trained behaviour.
Unwittingly we reward dogs for doing undesirable things – even saying ‘no’ is the surest way to train a dog to do ‘it’. Without meaning to by making a ‘scene’ and shouting, we’ve masterfully taught Fido that stealing lipsticks from a handbag is OK!
What defines naughty is up to the owner. What an owner is prepared to put up with is fine until it affects somebody else.
When a bull terrier, in our care, ate the heel off an expensive pair of Louboutin stilettos we were duty bound to get the stiletto re-heeled – that’s only polite and accepting responsibility for your dog’s unfortunate and expensive urge to eat a designer heel.
It’s surprising how many dog owners don’t take responsible view on these issues. Whilst no one is harmed your pooches actions may well impact on other people and their property. So to have third party insurance is recommended since a stiletto heel is one thing, but chewing the interior of a friend’s new car is another. In our age of anti-dog legislation it’s advisable to be covered.
As dogs age it’s particularly heart warming to see their former youthful antics appear and it’s hard not to encourage them – but slacking on the ‘rules’ and letting dogs get away with things can be a slippery slope. Dogs are not stupid and many are excellent opportunists – so if you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.
We’ve tried to train our Bull Breeds to know how to behave in certain situations, but other dog’s toys can be too exciting to resist. It’s all about attention and dogs are experts at making sure we give them as much attention as possible. It’s just one of the things that’s so great about dogs.
And by the way, an hour later, we posted the ball through the owner’s letter box. A little worse for wear. Both the ball and us.
Barking Blondes by Jo Good & Anna Webb, published by Hamlyn, £12.99www.octopusbooks.co.uk
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