The Littlest Dictator By Amy Rapp

06-05-2013

I have been laughing ever since Saturday afternoon’s last client. 

I had seen a new client that told me when he had booked the appointment he had taken on a dog from someone that had moved out of the country. 

The client complained that the dog was not trained and never listened to anything. When I arrived at the house the client told the dog to be quiet using his name, it is the unique name of a dictator. I looked at the dog and knew the dog immediately. He had been trained and had even successfully completed my Rosslyn puppy class. When I saw him the first time in his previous home, he was in fact running the house as a small white fluffy puppy.
The family was new to dogs and thought many of the behaviors were merely cute (they had no idea that the pup sitting on their feet was scent marking them or that perching on the back of the couch was the pup elevating himself physically to increase his status.)  He was the equivalent of a toddler giving the orders in the house.
We did a few sessions at the house and instituted a good manners policy meaning that if the dog wanted to be petted he must first sit. If he wanted to play ball he must lie down first. This is a give to get program. It puts the people back in charge of the dog in a humane way.

Other than fooling his new owner, he had extinguished the marking, getting on furniture, resource guarding and is now a generally well behaved 2 year old dog. We are still working on some breed specific traits, but all in all the Little Dictator has turned out to be a very nice dog after some “charm school” for improving his manners in his first home.