the breaking point

I'm a firm believer that a responsible dog owner takes the training of his or her dogs seriously. At the very least, he or she recognizes when his or her dogs need a little more schooling that the average mutt. My mutts, they need all the help they can get!

Ok... I over-exaggerate. All in all, they're good puppies...and I'm grateful we had the opportunity to enroll them in an excellent obedience class when they were very young. The trainer at the Atlanta Humane Society, Mailey, was incredible. Through her classes, I became motivated to see my puppies become good canince citizens and gained confidence to become a strong leader. The training, however, is only as effective as the human and I recognize the very human vices of lazyness and complacency have gotten in the way of my consistency.

As a result, my lovely dogs are often tazmanian devils when we leave the confort of our home...especially when a leash is involved! My desperation to get the little monsters under control reached red zone levels when Jake started turning suicidal and running at trucks and moving lawnmowers and dragging me and Luna along with him. A great student, Luna quickly caught on that trucks and lawnmowers and squirrels and other dogs on leashes and cats and runners and motorcycles and bikes and roller-bladers are evil things that must be barked at and chased at so they go away.

I reached my breaking point when I picked them up for doggie daycare a couple of weeks back. The trainer was teaching a class and I wanted to wait for her to see if I could enroll Luna in agility classes. While we waited, Jake and Luna turned the place upside down. They barked and pulled and lounged and almost knocked over a table at the sight of the other dogs walking by on leashes. Near tears, I scheduled a class with the Canine PhD instructor, Meredith, and went home determined that the afternoon's events would never repeat themselves.

Enter, the CLICKER!