Saturday, November 30, 2013

New Dog Assessment.

I had her and Murphy out for a walk today. Murphy is a jerk on a leash and probably always will be; he pulls and tugs and decides to stop and sniff things at random and he's generally difficult to manage unless you put a pinch collar on him.

This gal is completely different. She just falls into place next to and slightly behind me, and walks along nice, the leash slack. She's aware of squirrels and other animals but other than watching them, she doesn't react. She stays right alongside me, stopping when I stop and matching my pace when I walk. She's amazing, especially being this well tuned on our first walk together. In fact, my only gripe is that she's obviously used to walking with right-handed folks as she falls in on my left side every time. I'm left-handed and train my dogs to my right side. Murphy at least gets that, but he still pulls out to the full range of his leash on my right side the entire walk. I've worked on Murphy since I got him when he was two, but by that time his habits and attitudes seemed pretty well set and he'll likely always be a bit of a chore to walk. This girl though...wow.

And this is what I don't understand. Her basic obedience (sit, stay, come, etc.,) is good and she's well-socialized. She's trained and it's obvious that someone sometime put a lot of work and love into this girl. So how'd she get to be so malnourished and medically-neglected? It doesn't make sense.

That's all in the past though. Now she's mine and I'll resume working with her. With any luck, some of her social graces will rub off on Murphy.

I can hope, can't I?

14 comments:

  1. You may be surprised. We owned a stubborn male beagle. Acquired a female black lab puppy. Put her through school.

    Over a short time, the beagle was learning from her!

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  2. Its sounding like you've found a perfect pair, one that's well behaved to remind you of how bad the other one is.

    For the record though I prefer bad dogs, they are a lot more entertaining.....

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  3. May have been through more than one owner. Owner who trained her may have had to give her up for one reason or another, the new owner wasn't conscientious. Or, if one owner, owner may have had an extended hospital stay, worked out of town, or even a jail term. No knowing, really.

    I'm glad she's with you now, who will care for her.

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  4. One can always hope. She sounds like a great dog!

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  5. The previous owner probably fell into bad financial times and had to either feed the kids or the dog. This makes since considering the Lyme disease and other medical issues that she had before you rescued her. Sad state of affairs for our country.

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  6. Because people are stupid and treat living things as objects to be discarded when no longer convenient.

    So happy she has a good new home!

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  7. I hate to say this...but murphy's bad habits will prolly rub off on her...

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  8. Anonymous8:01 PM

    She will be a big help

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  9. I'm gonna side with her having a positive effect on the Murf.

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  10. Hard to say why she got to the state she was in.

    Our Big Dog is also a treat to walk. He's very well behaved on the leash, and only seems to lose it when he's around the little dog.

    He was formerly owned by a young man who's parents called the rescue place the day after their son went away to college.

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  11. her bad habits will come out in a few weeks-few months.

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  12. Hopefully she rubs off and not the other way around!

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  13. What K said. It sounds like she had a good home, but the owner fell on tough times or maybe even passed away. A reminder to not only have a plan in place for your people type loved ones but also your animals.

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  14. Perhaps it's just a girl/boy thing?

    All of my cats have always been boys until our last one. She was undeniably dainty and effeminate compared to the previous ones. Extremely well behaved and wicked smart.

    They've all been neutered, so it's not like it was testosterone, it's something different. We currently have a boy and a girl. The gender differences are still completely obvious.

    I doubt she can know such things, but she's extremely lucky you found her. But I keep seeing these stickers on the back of cars that are the shape of a dog's paw and say "who rescued who?"


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