Larry Caldwell
2006-07-12 13:21:27 UTC
OK, when we left off the story of Dufus, the stray chocolate lab, he had
been at my house for a month. He had been wormed, neutered, chipped,
taught basic obedience commands, and chewed through a half a dozen
gumabones and $100 worth of rawhide chews. I had been told that labs
chewed, so was forewarned. The only way to save the furniture was to
shove something in his mouth.
My opinion of his intelligence continued to rise. Not only was he a
snap to train, but he was an escape artist. First, he climbed the chain
link fence to get out of the kennel. He didn't go anywhere, he just
didn't like being confined. When I came home from work, Dufus would be
sitting on the front porch waiting for me. I chicken wired the top of
the kennel to keep him in, and the very next day he met me on the front
porch again. If he couldn't climb over, he would just open the gate. I
had to padlock the gate to stop that one.
I also had to start locking the doors in the house. We have lever-style
hardware, and it took him about a day to figure out how to open the
doors from either side. I also have to lock the bathroom doors or risk
having company. Dufus thinks showers are wonderful things. He also
once preempted my wife's bathtub.
My wife and I found his antics entertaining. We are used to intelligent
dogs. If you can focus that intelligence, you end up with a really fine
hunting dog.
In the field, things were not so hopeful. At first, Dufus was a
horrible boot polisher. That was probably the result of his being
dumped and having abandonment issues, but he wouldn't get more than 5
feet from me, even with two other dogs ranging all over the countryside.
The one obedience command he resisted was 'stay', because he didn't want
to be separated from me.
One of the ways I picked to get him out from underfoot was to teach him
to play fetch. This poor guy was about 9 months old, and didn't know
how to pack things around in his mouth! I can't imagine how somebody
did that to a retriever. But hey, it's in the blood. It didn't take
long for him to get the idea. It wasn't long until he was retrieving
bumpers like he had done it all his life. In the process, he became
more confident about getting away from me. When I started him on
doubles he resisted the second retrieve for a long time. I just waited
for him to pick up on it. Mother nature helped, and on the day of the
first heavy rain of the season he picked up his first double. He was in
heaven. Water from the sky! After that, he was a natural. He always
knew what I wanted, he just had to shed a neurosis or two.
Of more concern was the fact that Dufus apparently had no sense of
smell. I have three other dogs, a Picardy Spaniel, a Blue Picardy
Spaniel, and a miniature dachshund. The spaniels have the typical
spaniel nose, able to track anything at a dead run or scent a bird 100
yards away. The dachshund is about as good, just closer to the ground
with different priorities. Poor Dufus was clueless. It was obvious
that he relied entirely on his vision. In a 10' x 10' square of tall
grass, he couldn't find a piece of hot dog. All I could hope was that
he had been so tightly confined as a pup that he never had a chance to
explore and learn to interpret scents.
I'm going to jump ahead several months here. Dufus did learn to range
out on command, and hold a sit/stay 50 yards out. He is still learning
to use his nose, but at 5:00 this morning, on our dawn walk, I saw him
pick a scent off the wind before the spaniels did.
There's a lesson there. If you want your dog to use its nose, give it
lots of time in the field to learn what those scents mean.
There is more. Next time I'll tell the story of Dufus' First Duck.
been at my house for a month. He had been wormed, neutered, chipped,
taught basic obedience commands, and chewed through a half a dozen
gumabones and $100 worth of rawhide chews. I had been told that labs
chewed, so was forewarned. The only way to save the furniture was to
shove something in his mouth.
My opinion of his intelligence continued to rise. Not only was he a
snap to train, but he was an escape artist. First, he climbed the chain
link fence to get out of the kennel. He didn't go anywhere, he just
didn't like being confined. When I came home from work, Dufus would be
sitting on the front porch waiting for me. I chicken wired the top of
the kennel to keep him in, and the very next day he met me on the front
porch again. If he couldn't climb over, he would just open the gate. I
had to padlock the gate to stop that one.
I also had to start locking the doors in the house. We have lever-style
hardware, and it took him about a day to figure out how to open the
doors from either side. I also have to lock the bathroom doors or risk
having company. Dufus thinks showers are wonderful things. He also
once preempted my wife's bathtub.
My wife and I found his antics entertaining. We are used to intelligent
dogs. If you can focus that intelligence, you end up with a really fine
hunting dog.
In the field, things were not so hopeful. At first, Dufus was a
horrible boot polisher. That was probably the result of his being
dumped and having abandonment issues, but he wouldn't get more than 5
feet from me, even with two other dogs ranging all over the countryside.
The one obedience command he resisted was 'stay', because he didn't want
to be separated from me.
One of the ways I picked to get him out from underfoot was to teach him
to play fetch. This poor guy was about 9 months old, and didn't know
how to pack things around in his mouth! I can't imagine how somebody
did that to a retriever. But hey, it's in the blood. It didn't take
long for him to get the idea. It wasn't long until he was retrieving
bumpers like he had done it all his life. In the process, he became
more confident about getting away from me. When I started him on
doubles he resisted the second retrieve for a long time. I just waited
for him to pick up on it. Mother nature helped, and on the day of the
first heavy rain of the season he picked up his first double. He was in
heaven. Water from the sky! After that, he was a natural. He always
knew what I wanted, he just had to shed a neurosis or two.
Of more concern was the fact that Dufus apparently had no sense of
smell. I have three other dogs, a Picardy Spaniel, a Blue Picardy
Spaniel, and a miniature dachshund. The spaniels have the typical
spaniel nose, able to track anything at a dead run or scent a bird 100
yards away. The dachshund is about as good, just closer to the ground
with different priorities. Poor Dufus was clueless. It was obvious
that he relied entirely on his vision. In a 10' x 10' square of tall
grass, he couldn't find a piece of hot dog. All I could hope was that
he had been so tightly confined as a pup that he never had a chance to
explore and learn to interpret scents.
I'm going to jump ahead several months here. Dufus did learn to range
out on command, and hold a sit/stay 50 yards out. He is still learning
to use his nose, but at 5:00 this morning, on our dawn walk, I saw him
pick a scent off the wind before the spaniels did.
There's a lesson there. If you want your dog to use its nose, give it
lots of time in the field to learn what those scents mean.
There is more. Next time I'll tell the story of Dufus' First Duck.
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