Puppies need structure…by Lisa Harmon June 22, 2008

Flappy lips make me look ferocious, eh Mom? Kenai, 24 weeks old

Kenai had himself a heaps of playtime Saturday, enjoying one last run before the tall grass was cut, and a thorough inspection after it was cut. We began the play as always, with a loose leash walking practice, having some reminders and rewards for come, leave it, lets go, and heel. The morning walk was terrific: I hardly had to say a single slow or go right. My prong-horned antelope was paying such attention! Maybe it was watching me fill the goodie bag before we headed off?

Thanks to the new institution of practice before and after play, Kenai is getting good at recall off leash. The morning play was full of running-home-to-momma, with happy smiles and bright eyes. Then it’s off to chase butterflies or pounce on his ball again. Tigger time, bouncing around!

When he gets a notion to play with a stick, Kenai looks like a mustang being broken to a saddle: frog walking, butt swinging, heaving the front end then the back end, bucking all over the place, then running as hard as he can. He’s really a blast to watch when he’s having a good time!

Afternoon and evening runs aren’t as compliant, but transformed from the ignore-you games of a month ago. It’s quite the paradox that the more structured a puppy’s play time is, the more relaxed and enjoyable it is.

A lot of people, myself included, just unthinkingly provided at least some time for pups to do what they want. There are dogs that let you get away with that. Then there’s Kenai. We’re so used to thinking like the humans we are, the idea that we need unstructured play time gets transferred to our dogs. It can seem dictatorial to include obedience, even in their outdoor play.

The problem with letting Kenai do what he wanted was that Kenai did what he wanted. I ceased to exist once that leash came off, whether he was getting into poisonous plants or heading off down the road. The unresponsive behavior carried over to indoor play and walking on leash, too. I knew dogs need a structure to their activities, I simply didn’t provide a structure to THAT activity, and paid for it! Lesson learned.

How many lessons is that now? Have we hit the triple digits yet?

BB also got to run around with this here Auntie Lisa, twice in fact. The more exercise he gets, the better, considering the serious strain it is for him to have a small child in the house. A long outdoor frolic in a familiar, safe place is the best detox for puppy nerves. He also got some practice at not reacting when someone runs up to Mom: it took me several tries, but he eventually got the idea!  When Emily did it later, he was far less extreme in his response.

I didn’t get a 2 pup puppy school competition in like I was planning, deciding to give my energy to their exercise because of the upheaval my niece causes during the weekends. Having to cut 3 acres of grass before the next storms sucked up most of my strength, even on a riding mower. I hate the humidity that comes with summer in the upper south! Supper became a non-event after the mowing and puppy runs… such is life.

I did not want to be in a position where I was responsible for training 2 puppies. I REALLY did not want to, knowing the additional effort would take a toll on me. If I could even do it at all, with the chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia I have to deal with. I managed Saturday, but by dark I was a not-walking-anymore zombie. This morning was hell trying to get out of bed. Pain meds are a big no-no for me, since they trigger migraine storms if used too often. I considered gnawing on Kenai’s bully stick…

Saturday was a good day for me physically. On days I’m not in good shape, Beebs just does without sufficient exercise, and I feel bad hearing him get in trouble for acting wild. It is very preventable. He’s pliable, and easy to work with, if you just take the time to let him run and play. He responds to even minimal effort in training. Heck, if I could put his eager attitude in Kenai’s burly body, I’d have the ideal service dog!

So what I must tackle now is 4-6 walks instead of 2-3, the concentration of training one while watching the other for a break in the down stay, doing BB’s physical therapy and massage, Kenai’s public outings 3-4 times a week, and the vexation of wearing myself out while Mom lays around complaining about being tired… I didn’t want to go there.

But that’s where I am. Mom’s still emotionally immobile, so I can’t count on her. Even when she’s around, she’s not around, yelling for the two to quit fighting from the couch. (Doesn’t work, never will…reduces you to nothing more than background noise). She also has the habit of going off to do something, leaving BB on his bed. That’s fine when Kenai and I are upstairs. But when I’m cooking dinner or Beebs is squirrelly, it means I’m stuck managing two puppies that act like village idiots without supervision.

I might as well see that they are both trained to be compliant and calm, since I wind up with them both anyway. It’s a little tempting to move the pan half off the heat so Mom’s pork chop turns to charcoal while I’m keeping the dueling middleweights on their beds and their teeth to themselves! Tempting, but it wouldn’t work. Nasty idea anyway.

Mom got a dose of the two-at-once while I was scalping the field. I almost never leave Kenai with her, so she doesn’t really have any idea what my 6 hours plus of both pups on Thursdays are like. I only leave him inside when I’m cutting the grass. Of course, the mismatched monkeys drove her crazy, and I made her even more nuts because the nonsense stopped when I came inside shaking the goodie bag.

I get instant attention when I shake the fanny pack with the treats. The pups get so transfixed at the sound, they forget to drop the toy in their mouth or get the rest of the way off the couch. They stand there staring and drooling like statues, frozen in mid-movement. Our very own pillars of puppy salt.

I know better than to think they stopped horsing around just because of little old me. It’s the goodie bag mostly. But I’m the old bag that dispenses the goodies from the goodie bag, so I carry weight with them. And sometimes the only weight I carry is called being fat!  Puppies are not an undertaking for the insecure…