Bootcamp

Eleanor and Ofer went on vacay to places that are really, really far away from here, and so for those three weeks their Dalmatian/Dane mix, Rigley, went to Boot Camp for Dogs. El and I discussed her trepidation about this when I was in Chicago on my vacay, but it seems that all went quite well, he had a blast and wore himself plum out, and now doesn't pull on the leash at all. The caveat is that they've trained him with the pinch collar, which he doesn't like (but respects, now), and is this a good method, especially since it causes El no small anguish when stronger corrections result in some yelping.

But still, he walks so nice on a leash now, she says!

Let us now shift the scene to Baltimore last night on Guilford Ave. Edith invited over her med school classmates and the family of the girl a group of them tutor, and this family has in addition to the middle school girl, girl twins who are about 6 or 7. Probably 7. This was, oddly, the second set of twins I had met that day, the first ones being the kids of a woman I work with on malaria database stuff. But whatever, back to my story.

Kima, not surprisingly, sniffs out the girls' nervousness and begins to bark menacingly. In a "what the hell are these creatures, clearly they mean me great harm" kind of way. This scares the girls even more but amazingly, their mother is nonplussed. She hasn't had her walk yet so I take her out, agonize again over how these problems are incompatible with my not too distant future, in which children (possibly my own, and definitely those of my friends) will be in my house. While I'm going over this she's pulling ahead as always, and so I take out my phone and dial the number of a trainer some friends of ours have worked with.

Shane will be coming over on Thursday, just before the VP debate (gah! but it must be done), to work with us. His website outlines his strategies which are aligned fairly closely with the Cesar model - the owner has to be the pack leader, need to get control, etc. He uses e-collars for training, when appropriate. I expect he'll probably advise me to get a prong collar for walks, although I'm not sure he actually said that, because during half the conversation I was walking Kima and getting cornered ON ALL SIDES by other dogs, like in Indiana Jones when the spiky doors are closing in on him.

So, kids, what happens when worrisome things happen to me and I have to make decisions? That's right, anxiety dreams! Not only did I dream I had to remember my passport number in order to get out of Switzerland to Claire's wedding (related to my meeting next week), I dreamt I was walking Kima with a prong collar and she wasn't responding no matter how hard I yanked, in a terrible Milgramesque sort of situation.

When I woke up I realized everything was ok, however. Kima has a ton of potential as already demonstrated by her being able now to sit consistently at intersections and wait till I give the ok. I'm sure she will impress the hell out of Mr. Shane, both for that and for her crazy dog fears. She's a piece of work!