Boy Did I Learn A Lesson

Ugh!! Did I ever make a mistake today. Brutus loves to go places with me, so if I'm just running to the post office, or better yet to PetSmart, I take him with me. Nine times out of ten, I put his walking harness on him in the car just in case he would escape. His leash is always attached to it, so it would give me something to grab during the great escape.

Anyway, he didn't try to escape today, but instead of putting his gentle leader on him, I just put his leash on him when I left to do errands. Everything went fine until we got to PetSmart. Oh....My...God!!! It was literally the trip from hell. I have been in there with him so many other times, but this time was bad. I needed cat litter, which is way in the back of the store, and the first thing he does when we get back there is pee on the display. I was mortified, and didn't know what to do, so being the horrible dog owner that I was at that moment, I pretended I didn't see him do it. Then we headed over to the dog food aisle. I needed a bag of dog food for Brutus, and the little butt head lifted his leg again. I couldn't believe it. I had walked him out in the parking lot to go potty right before we came in the store. How much urine can one dog have? Seriously!!

Now that his bladder was empty, he decided he would start pulling me through the store. I had the cart, with two 27 lb. containers of cat litter and a 25 lb. bag of dog food in it, so about the equivalent of Brutus, to push too. It didn't slow him down a bit. I needed about three other little things, and as he's dragging me along, there is a woman who has been at PetSmart as a trainer for years and years who happened to spot us. I was trying to keep "it" together, and introduced Brutus to Libby, the dog trainer. The first thing I always do is explain the short amount of time that we have had Brutus, and that he is a rescue dog. For some reason I seem to think that it will make his naughty behavior acceptable. Libby took Brutus's leash and said she was going to show me something. She held his leash in one hand, and stood on the rest of it with all of her body weight so his head was about a foot and a half off of the ground, and told me to ignore him. While we were ignoring him, I told her that my son Andrew had worked there through high school, and she remembered him. Thankfully, fondly. Brutus kept pulling on the leash, so she shortened the distance he had by about three inches and we waited. We did this for a good ten minutes. By the time he finally succumbed and laid down, his head was only about eight inches from the floor. She said that if I want to control him in public, I need to show him who's boss, and take control of his behavior by standing on his leash. She said it wouldn't take more than four times, and he would remember it, and lay down. She handed his leash to me while he was still on the floor, and he bolted, so I stood on his leash like she had, and after about five minutes, he laid down on the floor. Lesson learned. It's just a little tough to stand on his leash when you actually have to move through the store to shop!

She took me to the front of the store and we signed Brutus up for lessons. Hopefully this round of lessons will go better than the last. For one thing, this place is only five minutes from my house instead of forty-five, and Brutus has been there many times and never had a break down, so keep your fingers crossed.

The lesson I learned is I WILL NEVER GO THERE WITHOUT THE GENTLE LEADER AGAIN!!!!

I also met a nice woman who told me about a great dog park very close to my house that is totally fenced in where he can run and play fetch, so we will be going there very soon. He needs to burn off some energy. As for me, I am pooped!!