It has been a really long time
since I have had a dog with a long tail. My two dogs who preceded Missy both
had docked tails so I never had to worry about stepping on them or worry about
their tails getting snarled and messy. Apparently that was also one less
appendage to cause household destruction.
See, Missy has a long, wavy,
beautiful tail. It is like a pendulum that hypnotizes the mind when she is
happy. Swish, swish, back and forth, back and forth, so pretty!…hem hem.
Anyway.
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Of course the wagging goes into
hyper drive when she gets excited, most often when she sees me getting ready to
go outside. Since we seem to have skipped November and December and gone
straight to January in terms of the wretchedly cold and snowy weather it takes
me about five minutes to bundle up in my barn gear to feed the horses.
Missy runs through the kitchen
and waits, not very patiently, while I get dressed and her tail hits
everything. Thump, thump against the wall. Swish, swish against the hanging
coats. Clunk, clunk…wait, why the clunk? Resting on a low sill in the wall
under the hanging coats resides some miscellaneous items, most notably a conch
shell from somewhere and a short piece of PVC pipe. I did call them
“miscellaneous” items after all.
I would guess that 99% of the
times I take her outside through the kitchen door with me Missy’s tail manages
to knock those darn things of the shelf, leaving me to constantly pick them up.
Or not, depending on how lazy I am. But since I go out more than once a day,
that provides plenty of chances for her to knock them on the floor.
Since not wagging her tail is not
an option, here are a couple of solutions I have come up to prevent Missy from
causing chaos:
1. This
one is brilliant: Put lightweight items where her tail cannot reach!
2. This
one is pretty cool too: Let her outside before
I get ready so she does not have time to knock anything over.
3. Ok,
number 3 is great from a training standpoint and it is something Missy and I
practice on a daily basis anyway. That is the “wait” command.
“Wait” works for a variety of
scenarios, such “wait” to take the biscuit, or “wait” to go through the door. I
trained her with the verbal command as well as a hand signal similar to the
human sign for “stop.” I just put my hand out, flat with the palm up in front
of my chest where she can see it. I then release when I am ready and
surprisingly she does better waiting for me to let her take a biscuit than she
is waiting to go through a door. Maybe she sees it as a game or reward because
there is food involved for the former.
Often times if I am going out for
a quick jaunt in the yard I will make her wait in the doorway and make her
follow me outside, instead of preceding me, but getting bundled into snow gear
and making sure she follows my command can be taxing, especially when I have to
run down the stairs to grab my muck-boots.
Regardless of which option I
choose to use on a continuous basis I think they all have one thing in common.
The fallen items are really my fault because I leave them within tail reach, or
do not enable the “wait” rule. So every
time I say “Missy, you darn dog,” I really mean “Heather, why did you leave
that in that spot?”
Do you have a “tail” of mass
destruction? Or something you left where you shouldn’t for your dog to snatch?
I would love to compare stories. Happy tails!
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