I was talking to one of my clients today and they told me a heart breaking story. My client is the owner of Cooper, a 2 year old miniature poodle. When Cooper was a young pup, they set him to me for a week of remote collar work. The main reason was they wanted to make sure they would have a reliable recall for years to come as well as a way to communicate clearly and efficiently.
Cooper’s parents live in a condo on a busy street in San Diego and they have such confidence in him that they can let him out of the house, he runs downstairs and goes to the bathroom on his own. When they want him to come in they use the collar and he knows to come running back in. This is a good example of clear communication with properly defined boundaries. He knows to stay out of the street and come when called.
Now here is where the story starts to get sad. One of the neighbors in the complex has a one year old lab. When it was a pup Cooper’s parents mentioned that they trained Cooper at Who’s Walking Who, and highly recommended they get some training as well. The lab owners felt they had a reasonable amount of control with their lab and never proceeded with any training. The neighbors with the lab saw Cooper being let out to go potty and coming back, so they thought they would have no problem with their lab.
On Sunday morning, they let their lab out to go to the bathroom unsupervised and it was hit by a car and killed. Needless to say, this is a tragedy that could have been avoided with proper training for both the dog and owners. It’s a tough lesson to learn but I’m sure if they ever get another dog they will get the training they need to have a better way to communicate rules and boundaries in a clear fashion.
This is just one example of why people need to get proper training for their dogs. I see too many people with a false sense of control. They will say, “well my dog can sit, stay, shake, roll over” etc. I always ask, will your dog do this if there is a distraction? Most will say no.
If you or someone you know could benefit from the lifelong rewards of proper training, contact San Diego’s premier dog training company, Who’s Walking Who today at (619) 269-3647.
