True confessions

I know I sound like a broken record, but here goes: Dieter and I have got to come to a meeting of the minds about his mouthiness. Well, more to the point is, I need to put on my big-girl-panties and not let Bitey McBite get the upper hand. I'm confessing that it's a trait of mine--giving up and throwing in the towel too easily--and so I'm working on that. But I get easily frustrated with the incessant mouthing Dieter doles out.

He's a dog from a working line of shepherds, and they can be particularly mouthy. He's also a pretty energetic guy and can get pretty excited--we like to be clever and take foreign phrases and "rework" them. With Dieter we say: He has a dose of the joi de vivres (pronounced: zwa duh vivrahs--like we don't got no educashun). Add to the mix, he's in his terrible teen years and, so, can throw the "attitude" switch at will.

Boundaries, we all need them.

But as I said earlier, the true confessions part remains that I cave in too easily. At our training classes, we learned different approaches to curbing Dieter's enthusiasm. These included saying "no" and "off" in a stern voice--neither of which seemed to have much of an effect. I've also been trying the grabbing the muzzle routine, but since Dieter is a strong and wiggling target, I tend to let go of his snout as he tries to continue to gnaw on me. Rather than throw my hands up in the air and start getting all weepy about how "Dieter doesn't like me," I need to stick with it.

Tonight on the deck Dieter grabbed my Crocs. Usually he pulls hard enough that I let go. But tonight I held on, made him sit, and when he tried to grab the shoes again, I made him sit. And he did--woo hoo! Later on, we were in the kitchen and he went from sweet doggie to Bitey McBite again. I didn't even have to grab him by the collar and escort him to his kennel. I just said "go to your house" and he did. 

As the venerable little train said: I think I can I think I can...Stay tuned.