But, this stop was to be our final stop, the last kennel we looked into had a mutt dog, and boy did this dog know how to do the Sarah McLachlan face. We asked if we could go outside in the run yard with him. This dog was so playful and even to some extent sat and came when called. What was better he genuinely seemed to like us.
We were sold; he was coming home with us. We paid the fees for him and loaded him up in the Subaru and went on the parent’s house, enjoyed the weekend with our newest family member and went home that Sunday. This bliss was not to last. About two weeks later Oliver, as we named him, (yes it has everything to do with the orphan Oliver from the book.) decided the cute phase was done with. He became a break out pro, as well as a door rusher. Oliver was a mix with Golden Retriever and Rocket engine, catching him proved to be about a two hour chase when he finally decided it was time to come home. Not what we wanted in a dog. So after some discussion we decided an electric training collar would be the best way to break the habit. The idea being it was remote and if h ran off we could get close enough to activate the shock therapy.
Back from the pet store with the collar in hand; I tested it on the lovely test strip it comes with. Successfully done with testing, we fit it on him and used the beep to see if he paid attention, he seemed to notice it, which the manual said was good. It meant he would likely respond to the beep, and we would not need to use the shock. We were happy about that, no one wants to hurt a dog unless they need to, right?
Well Oliver wanted to test this collar sooner than later and while we were cleaning the trash from the packaging, went and tried to eat my wife’s food from the plate on the table, we called him, he ignored us. We beeped at him; he ignored us and ate faster. I pressed the shock button, which we had set to max shock. The dog yelped and ran faster than I have ever seen a dog run towards me, and from across the room leapt at me landing on top of me.
I will stop here and refer to my first comment, don’t pee on an electric fence... Don’t let a dog with a shock collar touch you while being shocked. Those shock collars on max setting are strong. The dog was standing on my hand pushing my thumb onto the shock button. I was yelling, the dog was yelping and my wife was laughing. This went on for close to a minute before I summoned the strength to shove the dog off me.
He was trying to crawl all over me, that dog was scared, and didn’t seem to realize the shock came from the thing he was forcing me to press. Well, he never ran off again. If he ever got out he ran until the beeping started, and he would freeze, and not until I came and drug him home would he move. I guess it worked, although I think I paid more than the $80 dollars we spent at the pet store. I paid proverbial blood.
Hope today’s a good one,
austininva
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