THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK . . .

Here, Bubba . . . let me give you a clue . . . the opening post is a work of fiction. "The dog ate my homework" . . . it's a joke . . .

It was a funny story...I could see it happening lol.

I watched an episode of The Dog Whisperer when we were in the process of adopting our Jack. After we got him home, I fretted that Mr.Irish was 'ruining' him by letting him lead on the leash (the alpha/leader of the pack thing that Cesar lectures about).

But...he's a good dog. He had some anxiety problems early on caused by who-knows-what (only he knows for sure). I still fret about the 'leading' thing and fuss sometimes, but overall, he's obedient and well-behaved and we wouldn't trade him for anything.

Our boy dog shows perfect canine protocal toward me. When we go for a walk, he runs out in front on the leash, and from my perspective, he's pretending that he's the pack leader. However, he always follows commands, and if i want him to go in another direction, i just say "this way," and he alters his course. I see no evidence that he rebels at or slights my position as the alpha male.

I believe its time to set up a sting operation against the potential criminals.

Leave a plate of cooked meatballs on the counter. The trick? Stuff the meatballs with a Habanero Chili pepper and spiced liberally with Cayenne pepper.

Of course, this punishment will cut both ways as you probably will have a lot of vomit plus to clean up after your dog (hopefully) learns his lesson.

I couldn't do that even to a dog i didn't know, let alone one i love. The best novel i've ever read with a dog in it is Faithful Ruslan, by Georgy Vladimov. Ruslan is raised to be a guard dog in Stalin's gulag from the time he is a puppy. But a few years after he starts, Stalin dies, and the gulag is abandoned. Ruslan's camp is one of those which is shut down. Ruslan follows his "master" (his handler) to the train station, and laughing and joking with his companion, the handler takes a bread roll, cuts it in half, and spreads the wicked hot Russian mustard on it, and then feeds it to Ruslan. To Ruslan, it is the ultimate betrayal, not only for the horrible experience of the hot mustard, but because the only man he trusted is laughing at him.

It's a wonderful novel, and i highly recommend it, but it's a very sad story, so don't read it if you want a happy ending.

I had an across the alley neighbor in Chicago who would sprinkle cayenne pepper along her driveway so any dog sniffing around would be hurt.

Our building super was a dog lover like me so I told him what she was doing. Every day after she'd leave for work he would hose off her driveway.

He was a super super.

Is a super super like a double double?

Golly. My jokey post gets two strikes against it. Some people are a little inconsistent these days.

I don't know what you're on about here, but i don't vote on posts, so it has nothing to do with me.

I'll second that, Set. That would just be cruel.

Nevermind.

sometimes the training of certain dog types requires a trek into a moderately cruel world of discipline. Hunting dogs, for one, rwuire a "Soft mouth" with which to retrieve dead game. Several breeds (like setters) have about half of the dogs who dont demponstrate soft mouths from puppyhood. SO the first training they would recieve would be to learn to retrieve stuff without chomping into it. They make these retriever toys that have thich rubber "spikes" on them (A sotrt of come down from the original "toys" which were sticks wrapped with barbed wire). The hard rubber (or plastic), look like circular brushes and when tossed out for the dogs to retrieve, the dog learns not to bite down by a biot of negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is not usually a good thing but sometimes must be done when a dog is being trained to do something totally opposite to its nature.