Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Honk if you're naughty

Is anyone else obsessed with the show on Animal Planet - "It's Me or the Dog"?  I love that show!  Victoria Stilwell is amazing.  I do not miss a single episode.  I watch and try to learn, although I have to say I'm not nearly as successful as she is in getting my dogs to obey my commands.  


The one dog I'm trying so hard to train right now is Sammy.  My 6-year old male Shiteranian.  That's Shih-tzu and Pomeranian.  He has this really loud, vicious growl and bark and it really scares a lot of people.  Whenever I open the door to someone, he barks, snarls, growls, as loud as he can.  He is so loud, I cannot have a conversation with someone at the door.  I either have to go outside and close the door or put him in another room and close the door.  I also have to keep the front gated so he cannot reach visitors.  He's been known to nip at men's pants.  He's never bitten anyone but I'm not willing to take the chance.


Anyways, while watching a recent episode of It's Me or the Dog, Victoria would remove the dog from the room to keep him from barking.  It doesn't work on Sammy.  Then I saw Victoria get a loud horn - like the kind you'd get for a child's bike - and honk the horn at the dogs when they bark, and the dogs on the show stopped barking!  I thought, that was brilliant!  


So, off to Walmart I went.  I was testing out the horns in the bicycle section like an overgrown child myself, and got the loudest, most annoying honking horn I could find.  That should do the trick.  Right?


I get home, and of course, both of my dogs have their little heads in the Walmart bags to see what I brought home and looking to see what goodies I got them.  I found the horn and honked it once.  They just stood there looking at me, not sure what that was.  I set it down on the bench in my foyer and went into the kitchen to put away some groceries.


A few minutes later, I hear the most loud, annoying HONK!!!  And not just once.  It was like a HONK-HONK-HONKHONK-HONK-HONK!  I run out of the kitchen and there's Sammy - horn in mouth.  He runs up into the bathroom, honking "his" new horn.  Yeah.  "Mommy brought me home a real fun squeaky toy!"   Not.









Needless to say, I don't think this will train him.  And I'm glad I passed on the air horn. Yikes.

Any suggestions short of asking Victoria to come to my house and help me train him herself??

4 comments:

  1. Hahaha Sammy, you are so funny! isn't if fun when da mom comes home with bags? you KNOW there is a treat or a toy in there, don't you? Hun, I don't think that honker was meant to play wiff.... but it sure is fun!!!!! We love Victoria Stillwell! We call her the DOG-GOD! cuz that one episode where she uses a speaker from outside to talk to the dog in the house... the dog sure thought that was wierd! we always laugh about that one... watch especially the end of the video.. that's where the dog-god part is! hehe!
    p.s. there's a picture for you on my blog! HONK!

    http://www.fancast.com/tv/Its-Me-or-the-Dog/102105/1199388732/Top-15-Strangest-Cases%3A-11/videos

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  2. Thanks for the link about Victoria Stilwell - I just watched the clip, I hadn't seen that episode! That one does look funny with her talking through the speakers. Must have been aired before I discovered that show, cause I am completely hooked on it now.

    And I love the pic on your blog! LOL

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  3. oh, and an idea for helping with the barking issue... is a spray bottle with water in it... set on stream mode. Everytime the doggy barks when he's not supposed to, spray once at the doggy and say a stern, "NO." I did this for 3 days to teach my 3 dogs not to bark at the neighbors we've known for years LOL... It was very intense those 3 days cuz I had to go outside immediately to do this... but after 3 days, they were quiet.. and only barked at stuff they were supposed to bark at. Now, I only have to get the spray bottle in my hand if they are acting up and they immediately stop and rethink it.

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  4. That's a great idea, I will have to try that! Thanks! Putting "spray bottle" on my next Walmart shopping list! I just hope Sammy doesn't get excited thinking it's raining inside the house when I squirt him with it. Sometimes he just ain't right :)

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