Bad

7:24 a.m.

Okay, I don't have much time! But I wanted to tell you, I got a good laugh over the comments about how cute and sweet Fred must be. Because: no. She's actually turned out to be a very, very bad dog. I think she was spoiled rotten, and has learned that baying gets her attention, as does getting into things she's not supposed to. And it turns out she has some pretty deeply ingrained possessive aggression issues, so much so that I really really thought last night that she was going to bite one of us when we tried to take some trash from her. Growling, snarling, teeth bared, snapping (we were faster than her, fortunately), foam, the whole bit. I imagine, when she was a cute little basset puppy, her owners might have thought it was funny when she growled and tried to protect her toys, so the behavior was not corrected. It probably just got worse. I don't want to go into detail about how ugly the situation was, but it was ugly.

So now, we have an aggressive, attention-seeking dog that can not be left on her own. She's stubborn, pretends to forget commands she knows, and I'm pretty sure her brain is tiny. We're dealing with her the only way we know how. Every time she use a negative attention-seeking device (growling, yowling, barking, clawing) we turn our backs on her and stand with our faces from her and our arms crossed until she stops. Then we turn back around and praise her when she's quiet. We're giving her lots of praise for good behaviors. I think it's going to be a long road with her, but she has to be a good dog. I don't want to be afraid for her to play with other people. I don't want to be afraid she'll bite someone.

So! Here we go, let's train a bad dog! We're going to be patient, because I know she's this way for a reason. We also have to be firm and consistent. She has to respect our authority, and she has to learn to be good. Stupid little adorable moron. I had to remind myself that Monk was sort of an asshole when we got him. He was never aggressive, but he was stubborn and wilfully disobedient and really crazy hyper and mischievous.

The baying for attention is already getting a little bit better, and she has learned "no," and it's pretty amazing that when you turn your back on her the growling/barking for attention stops like magic. We're also using the nothing-in-life-is-free method, where you make the dog obey a command before it gets dinner, before it gets to go outside, etc, so that she learns she's not in charge.

Isn't that exciting? Or boring? You probably really do not care about how I am training our new dog, do you? Oh well! You've gone this far, you can't turn back now!

The dog, combined with our weekend houseguests and the cleaning to prepare, means that I am horribly behind on all things blog-related, and have about a billion posts to read and I'm not going to update the other blog this morning because I am feeling a bit Overwhelmed, at the moment, with work and my weird dog-getting-decision and preparing for houseguests. I just want to get through this work day and have fun with my sister tonight/tomorrow. Sunday I hope to sit on the couch a lot and spend lots of time doing computery things, and also possibly eating snacks.

I have to go to work!

Tell me what you are doing this weekend, and also that you love me and that it's okay to take a break from the other blog for a day or two and that you aren't mad I haven't been to your blog much this week and that I am not In Over My Head with this dog!

black sheeped