Good Dogs Gone Bad

Morey is pretty amazing and incredibly well-trained dog but sometimes I underestimate my role in keeping him so well-behaved. He's an easy dog to work with so I don't really have to do much training to keep him in tip-top shape. But the other day I had a chance to see what Morey might be like if I didn't enforce the rules and hold him up to a high standard. I have seen more than one service dog become unruly and turn into a "pet" because the handler didn't require the dog to behave in the way it was trained. To me that was one of the most frustrating parts of working with service dog teams because I knew how much effort had gone into training the dog and to see all that being allowed to be undone was really hard.

At the Agility Trial it was really hard for me to get around because of the surface. Because there were so many dogs they tried to keep things moving quickly and I found myself unable to "walk" the course beforehand and then get back to the crate area to fetch Morey and get us both back to the start line before our turn. This was only a problem on Friday night because the order was "Tall to Small" meaning that tall dogs ran first. Morey happened to be the tallest dog there so he was the very first one to go and it just wasn't possible for me to get everything done in the time I had.

Luckily, my friend Laurie who runs her Airedale, William, was there and offered to run and get Morey and bring him to me after I walked the course. I was very grateful for her assistance because of my time limitations. Morey is a pretty chill dog and he knows Laurie so I knew he wouldn't have a problem going with her.

Imagine my surprise (and horror!) when I saw Morey approaching dragging Laurie behind him. He was pulling on his leash so hard he was gasping and he looked like the most uncivilized and unruly dog you ever met. Morey, the loose leash walking master, pulling on the leash! Not only was I shocked I was also embarrassed because Morey is a really strong dog and I felt bad that he was dragging Laurie so hard. I know he was probably eager to get to me but that is no excuse. I don't blame Laurie at all because I wouldn't expect her to correct Morey by stopping and making him get back in position before moving forward. But it did make me realize that without enforcing the rules, Morey could turn into an uncivilized maniac fairly quickly!

I've had small tastes of this before but it really hit home this time. For example, for a while I stopped giving Morey permission to come in and out the door and just let him run in/out whenever I opened the door. One day he bolted out the door when I had only opened it an inch and I realized he was getting too pushy and that I had totally let it happen. Now Morey waits while I open the door until I tell him "release" and only then can he come in or out. It's not hard and it's not mean but it does hold him to a high standard of behavior and makes him look to me before rushing out on his own.

Seeing Morey pull on the leash made me realize that although he is a great dog and had some wonderful training it could all be undone very quickly.  I'm going to start giving myself more credit as to Morey's polished skills and civilized manner! :)