But then, we started obedience class with Piper.
This is a scenario where you would think that her behavior would get better then before. There, you would be wrong.
When she's in class, she is a total mess. We are the class idiots. She has been dubbed (granted, we did this, but it's appropriate) Hyper Piper. She spends the entire 90 minutes of class whining, moaning, lunging, pulling, looking anywhere but where she's supposed to, frothing at the mouth and just in general being a well formed definition of "what not to let your dog do".
Blessedly, our trainer is VERY understanding- having some terrier mixes of her own- and allows us to work with Piper at our own rate a lot of the time. Piper will get all the commands eventually, we just have to do it in a different way sometimes. When we practice at home, she's doing great- really strong command of the different behaviors we're enforcing. In class- a complete and total disaster.
The source of all the frenzy is she really wants to get to and play with all the other dogs in class. In particular the barely 5 lbs chihuahua. This poor teeny tiny dog, who is maybe 1/7 Piper's size, has become an object of obsession, because we simply will not let Piper get to her. It's just too dangerous. She's practically a Smurf, and Piper is like a wooly mammoth in comparison.
One thing to note before I go any further- we discovered, and swear by, the Gentle Leader snout harness for Piper. I get no endorsement money for saying this- but it has seriously changed our lives when it comes to walking our Disaster dog. If you have a dog that is a tugger or lunger on the leash- GET ONE! The element of control you have with it is just an entirely different world.
If you don't know what this is, a brief description is - it's similar to a horses halter- it goes around their snout and behind their head, and is connected to the leash under their mouth- so if they pull, their head turns to the side, as your arm maintains positioning. I hope that makes sense.... basically their face becomes a pivot point they have to learn to work around, instead of just pulling you down the road with their neck/shoulders.
OK, so with that established, Piper wears this gentle leader during class, which makes it easier to manage her totally un-managable lunging, bucking, and jumping at the other dogs. Within the first 45 minutes of class on the first day, she had discovered that there was a secondary benefit to this.
The Spin.
So, here's what happened- After staring at one of the dogs in class intently for about 5 minutes (with us trying to get her to stop the entire time) She lunged. Full force, full body "if I do this hard enough I can achieve anything" determination lunge. Her face, being attached to my very firm grip via her harness, became a pivot point for this lunge. Her body, having been thrown in the air with the force of her lunge, had no where to go but around her unmoving head. She had spun herself, mid air, in a 360 degree circle. Like a bizarrely drunk superhero, she took off and landed in the same spot, but she flew nonetheless.
There was a pause where she realized what had just happened, and the desired affect of now being further away from us had not been accomplished. Then she realized- WHEEEEEE!! that's fun!!!!
At this point she achieves The Spin at least once every 10-15 minutes during class, usually more then once at a time. She'll do 3-4 Spins in a row, with barely any time in between. She only does it in class, and only when we think she's calmed down. I'm not sure how she knows that last part, but she sure does seem to. If it weren't totally humiliating, it would be a pretty cool trick. I mean, how many 40lb dogs can fly? Not many, I would wager.
The Teeny tiny chihuahua is the most regular recipient of The Spin. She seems to think it's funny and bounces around whenever it happens. Damnit Tiny dog- don't encourage this!! I swear the 2 of them have talked when we weren't looking and conspired to entertain themselves with this.
So, fret not, we're clearly not out of the criminal woods yet with these misfits. There's more to come, I'm sure of it.
