Want To Keep Your Friends? Train Your Dog.

As we are cruising back into San Diego after a 4,000 mile road trip in 14 days with 3 dogs in an RV, reflections of the trip are not only already such great memories but some very interesting learning experiences as well.

We were very proud to have our friends tell us how great our 3 dogs behavior was. How awesome it was that we could let them out with no leash and not worry they were going to run off into unknown territory. How great it was that we could introduce them and not have them jump up and leave some nice paw prints on dinner attire. And how fabulous it was that they would quietly hang out in their kennels while we went to dinner with friends.

We were able to do so much with them simply because they have some basic training and dog manners. We took them to a park and taught them the new game of frisbee without worrying they were going to take off after someone’s neighborhood cat…. ya know, dog things like that.

What was even more amazing to us was how miserable it would be to have dogs that are untrained. How it honestly can effect friendships. For instance, we stayed with some friends who have four dogs. Sounded like great fun in the beginning. Dog people hanging out with dog people… until we realized what kind of a nightmare we had walked into.

First the dogs start barking at the sight or sound of anything, jump up on us and simply will not get down. Then there was the idea that we should take them all out, get a little exercise. Oh my, what a nightmare that was. Put them all on leashes… some sort of front harness contraption that’s supposed to stop a dog from pulling. How funny was that… watching these people trying to hang onto these dogs as they proceeded to drag the owners down the street towards the park.

Wait, let me back up though… lets talk about trying to even get out of the house. One has to barely crack the door, hold all the dogs back and slide out without one escaping, while the owners stand there and basically do nothing simply because this is “normal” behavior to them.

Anyway, lets put it this way, it ended up being a very long 3 days, we couldn’t really “do” anything with the dogs, it became obviously a very stressed situation for everyone, and we did hear the comment more than once… “it’s hard to get friends who understand the dog thing”!

What’s sad about all of that is it would just take a little very basic dog training for these people to gain back many of their friends or make some really great new ones.