The Luka Chronicles- Chapter 1 - Dogs Aaaarrghghgh!

As promised (or threatened), here is my first rerun. I had to search through three computer memories to find this. Do you think we have too many computers in our houehold? In rereading these chronicls it certainly brought back good memories and quite a few laughs. And, by the way, Luka, while fairly good on a leash, still jumps in the air in a demented ballet chasing bugs, still chases her tail (she hasn't caught it yet) and still will get up suddenly, run into the living room, grab a rope toy and shake it wildly while growling her silly growl/moan. And we love her more every day.

I took Luka to her first obedience class last night. Just getting out of the car was a challenge. I had a martingale collar on her as I knew from talking to the teacher when I signed up for the class that they only used “humane” collars. I could not ever use her choke chain and I suspected that if I walked in with her wearing a pinch collar I would have been booed out of the room & had positive reinforcement pamphlets thrown at me. Note, however the key word here is “walk.”

Luka dragged me at full speed into the store. I knew from previous experiences walking her that I needed to wear leather gloves or the leash would have shredded my palm and fingers. Luka barked and strained at the leash at every dog & person she saw. We managed to get up to the dog training area but we never even got into the ring! She barked incessantly, almost pulled my arm out of my shoulder socket, and was so excited she was not ever interested in food treats; the most food motivated dog I have ever known. The trainer kept telling me to walk her around the store to calm her down.

I walked about 5 miles around PetSmart that evening. However, by the end of the class she would stop barking if I just walked her to the end of the short side aisle. I did get to listen to the trainer for a few minutes at a time and I got Luka to sit and down twice. These are things she knows very well, she just could not even look at me as she was so excited at all the other DOGS. I kept reminding myself that this is why we were there. She needs to learn to listen even with distractions as huge as a dozen DOGS. The trainer promised me that the next week we would actually get into the ring. We waved to the other dogs and dog owners and left store at a slightly more controlled pace. We were both exhausted when we got back to the car, but Luka and I have high hopes. One of my hopes being that our goals will converge by the end of the session and we will both find paying attention to each other and working like a finely oiled machine an end in itself.
Those goals hardest to reach are the most prized.

Exhausted,

Patty & Luka