Well Mannered Dog
When someone tells me how cute my Maltese is, I heartily agree. If they pet him telling him what a pretty boy he is, he can act out how I feel, jump around grinning like an idiot. He does stand out, with his long white flowing coat, but a few months ago he was acting like a brat!
If I took Jasper out for his daily walks, I found when people stopped to admire him, he was jumping up on them, yapping, grabbing their clothes or nipping their hands. He fully expected to be fussed over, petted, crooned to and adored. I love that he’s cute. I didn’t like the way he was behaving. At home he was constantly nudging me for attention, yipping, jumping on me, dragging his teddy bear to me then more nudging, all a bid for attention. He had terrible manners. Something had to be done!
Out came the training books. I learned his behavior was entirely my fault. By the time I had gone through five books, I felt as if I should be locked up for harming this canine. Now that I had done all this damage, I must change my ways, to correct his. If I didn’t, the poor dog was doomed to a life of misery. How utterly depressing.
I tossed the books out. Jasper is an energetic, bright, happy dog. If he wanted admiration he was going to have to earn it. He needed to learn a different way to behave. Once I started, it was so easy. I began about six weeks ago, now I have a well mannered little dog.
He had to learn tricks. I stuffed my pockets with tiny treats. It really is true, a dog will do darn near anything to get even a sliver of something tasty to eat. When he nudged me for attention, he suddenly found himself going through all the commands he’s learned. Sit, stay, roll over, shake the bunny, hide under the blanket, creep on your tummy, shake a paw, go in a circle, go the other way, play bow, put paws on eyes, and so on. I’m lucky that he loves to learn, and seems to absorb new stuff like a sponge. I just have to keep coming up with new things.
Now when we go out, if someone stops us to talk to him, I have him go through a list of commands, then a tiny treat, then order him to sit. He does, but he’s watching my hands to see if they will go anywhere my pockets where those nummy treats are kept. If I run into a person who encourages him to jump up, telling me he’s not hurting anything, I feel like making them do tricks to earn the right to pat the dog! Instead, I let them know that he is in training to be a therapy dog, and please just enjoy him “preform.” I hand the treat for them to give Jasper, he’s learning he has to listen to others, not just mom.
He can still be a little devil, but at least he’s a well mannered little devil. His actions that were driving me up the wall, are now gone. His next trick? It would be great if I could teach him to write a daily posting, but I think I’ll teach him a peek a boo trick, where he has to hide behind something, when I say peek a boo, he’ll take a peek, then hide again. Should be cute!
