free dog anyone?
April 13, 2010
our yellow monster
Don’t let his sweet face fool you. We have a yellow monster we fondly call Ronin. Let me set the stage: he is part Lab, part border collie, and who knows what else. He has been to 30 plus weeks of dog training. Not an easy treat driven class but one through Sally Terroux. They are known for training dogs to help the hearing impaired. They expect you to work with your dog every day. We worked with Ronin diligently every day and he still flunked the first sessions of classes. He did a “crocodile death roll” every time he had to be calmed down (which was a lot). He was so bad, that the trainer would point him out to other training classes. He would say “… if you have a difficult to train dog like that one over there…” Yep, that’s my lovely dog!
Here are a few highlights of Ronin’s shenanigans:
1). I was in a different room putting stuff away from the store and I thought my husband was watching Ronin and my husband thought I was watching him. Ronin was in the kitchen eating a loaf of bread (he’s not allowed to have human food). He got put in time out for a while. Then after we got back from running another errand, we let him out, and he was being too quiet, so my husband went out to check on him and he was digging a hole (large enough for him to fit through) and was eating old potatoes out of the trash. When my husband went out to see what he was doing he started running in large circles for about 10 min with a potato still in his mouth. He crashed out because of all the carbs he ingested…Usually we never leave him unattended, but he was getting better. (This happened back in 2006)
2). Ronin needed food, so I thought it would be nice to take him to Petsmart with us. I was looking at a cardboard sale bin, while my husband was in the check-out line. Ronin jumped at the bin and pushed it over, fortunately I caught that one, but was unable to stop the other bin from falling, scattering tons of little dog lights (seasonal flashers that go on the collars) all over the floor. So my husband had 50lb bag of dog food on one shoulder and holding an excited dog with his only free hand (Ronin was excited because there was an off leash dog in front of him) but wait that’s not all: After we got back home, I get out of the truck and let Ronin out, but come to find out that his leash had become unlatched. He didn’t realize it till he was on the front porch, then he took off into our neighbors back yard. The only way we were able to catch him is that there was some furry who-knows-what on the ground and he decided to try to roll on it…he has never done that before… (This happened when I was six months pregnant).
the carnage after a visit from the mail man
3). Thanksgiving eve 2009 Ronin got into old cheese in the trash (I know what you are thinking, we don’t lock up our trash well, but we put them the other side of the fence or we have a lid that supposed to be secure…) and he ate the whole thing and ended up getting up at 2 am and every five minutes to go throw up outside. I have to hand it to him, he let us know when he needed out and didn’t do it in the house.
4). 4.8.2010 I’m on my way out to go to an alumni event and I just had returned with dinner for my brother and Eli. I hear knocking on the front door and I answer the door and Eli is standing there telling me that Ronin got out. I look up and watch our dog run around in our neighbor’s yard across the street. I call him and then I watch him run into the house next door. They had their door ajar and Ronin ran right in. I had to run across the street and call Ronin from their front door. Finally with the help of the home owner’s they got Ronin out. Ugh!
The training has made him livable. We tried “home schooling” him but it didn’t work. Even through all his faults we love him and he is a member of the family. I guess all his faults add up to some funny stories…but at the time when they are happening to you, they are not so funny.
