Did you ever have one of those days where you just feel defeated?
Today is one of those days for me, I can tell because I’ve gone through two packs of Skittles, normally I’m just a one pack a day girl.
As you know I’ve been working with Delilah on her off leash behavior, she drags a 30 foot leash on our walks. I really don’t like her dragging the leash because there are times when the dogs start running and chasing each other through wooded areas. I have pictures in my mind of her running full-out and having that leash get stuck, stopping her short and snapping her neck or breaking her back.
It scares me.
If I am holding the leash, even when I know she is about to bolt she can still pull me off my feet.
Or worse, once I braced myself because someone entered the trail with their dog and Delilah took off after them. Since I was prepared she hit the end of lead and just about flipped herself.
Many times on our walks I drop the leash and let her run, but there are certain areas where I hold fast.
I use a good quality, no grain kibble to reward the dogs when they return to me. Many times I give them kibble just for checking in, whether I call them or not.
The best way I can explain the area I walk the dogs in is to say my road ends in a cul-de-sac, if you drove straight off the road, you would go through a wooded area and into a large open field which is used for LaCrosse or Soccer. The field sits in the middle of a wooded area and there are houses beyond the woods on three sides.
In my Follow-up Friday post I wrote about a new spot Delilah had found to the left side of the field, when she took off on me last Thursday evening. Since then when we’ve gone to the field I make sure to hold her leash or keep calling her back to avoid that area.
In that same Follow-up Friday post I wrote about two more dogs we had encountered on our walks where the dog owner, just walked away leaving their dog and expecting the dog to follow.
Last night I rushed home from work, changed into walking clothes, clipped the 30 foot leash on Delilah and headed out for a quick twenty-five minute walk.
Forty five minutes later I came home with Delilah on a 10 foot leash, I was frustrated, angry, embarrassed, sad and above all else, I felt defeated.
We ran into the two new dogs yesterday with their mom. I found out their names were Norbert (siriusly love this name) and Kingston. I sort of joined her on her walk, asking questions about the dogs. Turns out Kingston (the one who practically followed me home) is a rescue they have had for about two weeks.
Two weeks and they are letting him run around without a leash. But that’s another topic.
We got to the field and Delilah headed over to the left, she was too far away from me to grab that leash, so I called her. She came back. I rewarded her, good girl!
She headed over there again, I called her. She ignored me and started stepping into the woods. I called her, “DELILAH! Don’t do it.”
She was gone.
I pulled out the training whistle and blew it, and blew it, and blew it. Nothing.
I knew I was going to have to go in after her, so I headed into the woods. She was in someone’s backyard and as soon as I saw her I could see that she was stuck, but I didn’t know on what.
Meanwhile Sampson and Kingston are running all over the place. Into the woods, out of the woods. Kingston’s mom is calling him and Sampson keeps running back following Kingston.
Delilah’s leash had slid under an outside, central air conditioning unit, which was sitting on a concrete slab on top of some paving stones that are secured in the ground. The leash must have hit that perfect spot on the corner of one of the stones and I couldn’t pull it out.
The houses in this area are absolutely gorgeous. This person’s yard is beautifully landscaped and immaculate. There is a fifth wheel pull behind trailer right next to the air conditioning unit.
I pull, tug and manipulate and I cannot dislodge the leash. I have nothing on me to cut the leash (and if I did, I would be leaving a piece of it there and they’d know SOMETHING had happened) and Hubby is not home for me to call for a bail out.
I have no choice but go ring this person’s door bell.
Utter and complete humiliation and embarrassment.
I leash Sampson and walk up to the house, I don’t see any lights on, but thankfully the owner was home and saw me approaching.
She came to the door and said, “Can I help you?”
Stuttering and apologizing I explain the situation and ask her if she has something I can cut the leash with.
I’ll be right out.”
She comes outside, where she is accosted by two dogs.
I try to calm them down.
She says, “It’s okay, I love dogs” as Delilah jumps up, desperate for someone, anyone to help her and reassure her that it will be ok.
She bends down and tries to tug on the leash, which doesn’t budge. I tell her we can just cut it, she tells me she would hate to cut my leash.
Really? Really? My dog is in your yard stuck on your property and you don’t want to cut the freakin leash?
I tell her I hope we haven’t done any damage to her property and she says, “No, you can’t damage this.”
She goes into the garage (Sampson tries to follow her) and comes out with a pair of scissors. They weren’t the sharpest pair but eventually they did the trick. She tells me maybe I can just tie the leash together.
Are you kidding me? I don’t care about the freaking leash, I am standing here drowning in embarrassment and humiliation. I just want to take my dog, go home and cry.
As we are standing there and I am trying to escape, here comes Kingston again.
More conversation about the dogs, “Now, who is this?”
I try to explain and inside I’m screaming, “Please just let me leave so I can find a hole to crawl into and die.”
Finally, finally, I have thanked her profusely and the three dogs and I head off.
There is of course more, but I realize how long this post is, so look for part two tomorrow (and I’ll post it early.)
And if you’ve hung in there this long, thank you!
Wow, sounds like quite a day.. We all have them, hang in there.. I do think I have a possibe solution to the hooking it to her neck problem. What about attaching the 30 foot line to a harness? That way if it snags it pulls on her entire body rather than just her neck.
At least you ran into a nice person who could understand dogs will be dogs. Keep doing what you’re doing, a good recall is one of the hardest things to teach.
Anna
http://www.akginspiration.com
I like the idea of the harness. I am going to look into that. I went out and got a 15 foot leash and I think for now she needs to stay on that, at least until I can reinforce her recall.
I was lucky that lady was so nice, I could have run into someone who didn’t like dogs and would have called animal control on me.
Thank you for the support, it means a lot.
I am sorry you had such a bad experience, but it could be fodder for your writing, no? 🙂 I cannot believe Delilah found the exact spot to get that check cord caught and darn because she was doing so well. I am glad the person who lived there was understanding.
Not that you are asking for advice, but the purpose of a check cord is to check the dog so it does not have the option to disobey. If you can’t grab the check cord without the dog pulling you down or bolting then it is probably not doing the job anyway and you might just want to work on reinforcing recall with out it so you won’t have to worry about injury. Just something to think about. 🙂
It was really awful, worse than her just taking off. She’s gotten stuck in the woods before but usually she is not too far away. And yes, we were very lucky the woman was so kind. I kept saying “you’re too kind, you’re too kind.” OMD I only hope I can be as kind and understanding should I be wearing the other shoe. 🙂
Truthfully I don’t know how to use a check cord, I call it a check cord but it is something my trainer suggested, letting her drag the leash. I am going back to square one with her and she will not be allowed any freedom unless she is carefully contained.
Thanks for the comment.
Oh yes agree with Anna, we’ve all been there! A good friend of mine has a saying she says quite frequently “their just dogs” I think you are doing a great job with Delilah so keep it up and don’t beat yourself up 🙂
I know that Misty, but I’m more concerned with her accosting someone or hurting herself or someone else. She really needs to be able to be under control when she is off leash.
Thank you for the kind words.
We all have bad days so don’t beat yourself up. I am not feeling too hot today, cannot figure out why our external hard drive won’t show up on our network to back up my failing laptop and got frustrated with the dogs play barking at each other. So I dragged one to one room, the other to another room and slammed the doors. I’m not too proud of myself but dangit, I needed a minute to think in silence and they just wanted to be rambunctious and bark at each other. So what I’m saying is, I’m right there with you on this bad day. My plan is to take a shot of Nyquil, go to bed early and hope tomorrow’s a better day!
I like your plan!! Yes we all have bad days, I know that. And I’ve had bad days with her before, I had just hoped that after a whole year of walking up there she would be a little bit better.
I’m sure your crew forgave you and gave you lovies as soon as you let them out.
Delilah tends to be in my face when it’s snack time and I’m just trying to finish ‘tweaking’ the blog post or putting my tags in. I can become very frustrated with her too. 🙂
I hope your day got better. Thank you for your comment.
First of all – Norbert & Kingston?! Siriusly?! Hello new best friends!!
But besides that, Jodi! Give yourself a break! You do a FANTABULOUS job training Delilah. But you have to remember: Delilah wouldn’t be Delilah if she didn’t keep you in your toes. 😉
While you were dying inside, this woman prob felt horrible herself, thinking that something that she owned could’ve hurt your dog. Like the previous comment stated, “They’re Dogs!”
I also think the harness is a good alternative for you to try. Shell hate it at first, but she’ll get used to it.
Yes siriusly. I couldn’t believe it myself and the lady is English! LOL
I agree, she won’t like the harness but TFB she can deal with it. Besides I can’t see her getting any kind of freedom any time soon. 🙂
Thanks Michelle, I appreciate it.
Oh Delilah! There are a lot of dogs that do worse things than that, and besides, who wants to have boring pets. You need a bit of sparkiness and character. It’d be a boring day here in blogville if everyone’s pets did everything they were supposed to do. 🙂 And just think (this might not help, but I’m going to write it anyway)… your bad day may have made someone else realise their day wasn’t so bad after all OR your bad day may have made someone else laugh and made their day better.
Yes you may be right. Someday this will be funny and something I will laugh about as I share it on a book tour, but today is not that day!
She certainly does provide me with blogging material though. 🙂
Oh Jodi. That does sound like a dreadful experience but the lady was very nice and very helpful. Try not to be too disheartened. Life is full of good days and bad days. Look at the bigger picture. Delilah has made great progress recently.
I wish she was as good as you Bassa, maybe I need to send her to the tall person? Is he like a dog whisperer?
I am so sorry Jodi. While I haven’t been through this exact situation, I have definitely been through equally humiliating experiences all thanks to my wacked out dog. It was great the woman was so kind and understanding! One day you will look back on this and laugh, I promise. It may not be anytime soon, but it will happen. *hugs*
Now I am going to go read the second part…
Yes Kristine, I knew you would understand. Did you ever just want to give up on Shiva? Take her back to the shelter and let someone else deal with her? I really do love that Tim Horton’s story, but that wasn’t you. 🙂
Someday I wil share this on a book tour or during an interview and we will all laugh about it, I’m just still crying over it today. 🙂
I’m so glad she was cool about it!
(Hey, not sure if this interests you, but I have the same fears about Meadow snapping her neck while dragging a long line, so I clip it to a regular harness rather than her collar.)
– off to read part two.
How does that work for Meadow, Donna? Do you ever let her run with the leash? I’m thinking I’m going to be getting Delilah a harness, at least for her wood walks.
Jodi- I always let her run with the harness on while dragging the long line, and it works great. Plus, it’s the only way she gets exercise, as she can hop a seven foot fence.
She also plays with the other dogs that way, but I have to be fairly close by to prevent tangling.
I should add that I’m talking about a regular harness with a clip on the back….
Wow, that is pretty embarrassing, I am sorry Jodi. What are the odds of such a thing happening?!? It sure sounded like you needed that second bag of skittles. Ok, I am also off to ready the second part…
Seriously shoes, why couldn’t I just win the lottery? I bet those are better odds! 🙂
oops, read not ready.
Even the BEST of trainers with the MOST behaved of dogs have moments like this. Moments when the dog is TOTALLY embarrassing by ignoring/disobey/being stubborn/being dogs who make undesirable choices.
Hang in there… I don’t know if you’ve thought about it, but hiring a personal trainer (of the canine variety) can be SO helpful. The knowledge/tips/hints/tricks they have up their sleeves can be so helpful. Working on timing…fixing things you may be sabotaging… working toward latency and reliability.
Heck, I AM a trainer and I’ve definitely consulted other trainers regarding my own dogs and they see things that I’m doing that are causing the issue i’m having OR they have a solution I haven’t yet thought about.
Here’s the problem Tena, money is tight right now (as it is with everyone) the trainers I have found are charging a lot of money which I don’t have right now. But I am going to figure it out, there has got to be a way!
Maybe I should video tape it, so you all can watch and tell me what I’m doing wrong…
oh man, i’m sorry you had this experience, but please know you’re not alone. dogs are still animals after all, and even the most well-trained among them are prone to acting like the dogs they are meant to be. you got really lucky that the homeowner was a sweetheart!
I know I did. But I imagine when your house backs up to a woods you expect animals in your yard. Just not crazy chocolate labs who don’t listen. 🙂
See how many people love you? Even when your dogs are determined to be dogs.
I know that nothing I or anyone else says can help when you feel so defeated and frustrated. But we all love your for your efforts and for sharing an experience that many of us recognize.
Oh Pamela, thank you. It was hard writing it and it is hard re-reading it, but it was real and raw. Your kind words are greatly appreciated.