Having not dealt with training dogs, my daughter decided to hire a trainer to help us train Leo and learn about his behaviour. Neither my wife nor I were convinced he needed one, however we went ahead with it.
The trainer was quite clear that he could train Leo only up to a point, the remaining training was for us to deal with him. He was a professional and gave fixed slots for the training and high-value treats had to be bought for every session so that he could be rewarded for achieving a milestone. My wife was told to keep out of these sessions because he behaved most badly with her, and she would let him, and not discipline him, so she would watch these sessions happening in the verandah through the glass doors.
It was not easy to get Leo to fall in line, the free spirit that he was and every time we questioned the trainer, he would put the blame right back on us for not enforcing the discipline. These sessions went on for a very long time and at the end of it, Leo continued to be Leo with one bonus that he would do certain tricks such as follow on the heel, occupy the mat when commanded and we would showcase these to our guests very proudly!! The only person Leo would consider listening to was my daughter, as she had put in the time with the trainer and Leo during their sessions. After all, we had spent a lot of money on this.
As regarding dogwalkers, he had quite a line up one, more unreliable than the next. The icing on the cake was one walker who had a liking for alcohol, and we wondered who took whom for a walk!!! We often found the walker playing on his mobile when we happened to see Leo on his walking track. Here again, it was the walkers who had said that it was our fault that Leo could not be managed for his potty training etc.
Leo had two major accidents with dogs on our street. One was a dog who believed he owned the street and would be sitting just opposite our gate waiting for the day when he could give Leo his way of welcoming him on the street. By chance one day the gate was left open for just a minute and Leo decided to run out and lo and behold this guy gave him the beating of his life. He had major puncture wounds in his paw and to our dismay had broken a bone as well. So, Leo was taken to the vet multiple times for dressing and my daughter went off to buy Manuka honey at Rs 5000 a bottle as someone told her it was good for him!!
My mother-in-law was so upset that she came all the way to see him multiple times. But as far Leo was concerned nothing changed except for the cone he wore, he continued to play with the ball hopping on one leg. The indomitable spirit he had!!!
On another occasion, he decided to attack our neighbour’s dog at least twice his size. Fortunately, this time he escaped unhurt. We had a lot of apologizing to do to the neighbours.
And the tale continues…..
