THE LOOKOUT SHOUT & SPOUT

Lookout Shout & Spout

Every dog is entitled to one free bite.  

Cliff D. Weller, SAP

In 1861, when many states of the deep south gathered in Montgomery, Alabama to create what would become the Confederate States of America (CSA), reporter William H. Russell of the London Times described the little city as nothing but “dogs and dust.” Seems the secessionists couldn’t walk up the big hill to the Confederate Congress without being assailed by yelping, howling mutts, in great profusion. They almost singlehandedly stopped the old CSA from ever getting off the ground!

An ordinance prohibiting dogs from running loose in Montgomery went into effect in the 1970s, and a footloose dog is as rare as signs of intelligence in the congress.

Got dogs? Me too. Perfectly behaved? Mine neither. Wish they’d quit barking all night, grabbing unattended turkey off the kitchen counter, stop sniffing in places they shouldn’t when guests arrive, stop pestering the blue ya yas out of you to toss the ball for the 1,200th time, and stop impregnating/ getting pregnated every time you turn your head away? Me too. But what to do? Glad you asked. Boy, are we lucky! Here is why.

Starting this month we are going to feature a four-part series on problem dogs and what to do about them. Click here for Part One. Maybe later on we’ll have a series on problem owners who don’t get their dogs “fixed,” or who put them in tiny, unshaded, claustrophobic backyards, or don’t get them vaccinated when they should, or over feed them to the point where they swell up like small ponies, and who generally can’t recall why they got Fido in the first place. We have a tremendous over population of unwanted canines on and around the mountain, mostly because owners don’t take the time, and the minimal expense, to have their dogs spayed or neutered. But that’s a story for another issue. The issue here is to help you identify your dog’s problem(s) and then suggest remedies. And we have just the person for the job.

Up in Trenton there is a dog trainer named Debbie Tringale. She is a sensible, down to earth lady who knows what she’s doing and is willing to share her knowledge with the rest of us dog lovers/ignorers. This is a bit of a departure for us. But I think you’ll find some lessons you can apply, right away, to bring back your dog from the very precipice of dog jail. Now, you can try to talk to a dog in a reasonable voice, or you can yell at them at an unreasonable volume. If you know what you’re doing, you can get back a lot of control over a dog gone (of helped to go) bad.  After all, if dog is man’s best friend, aren’t they worth a little trouble? A well mannered dog is a happy dog. A happy dog has a happy owner. See how this is working? I found a quote the other day from a Senator George Graham. Here is what he said:

“Gentlemen of the jury: The one absolute, unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.”

As Debbie points out, owners often create the very problems their dogs manifest. Don’t we owe it to our hairy friends to help them overcome bad behavior traits? Let me help you with the answer. Yes.

I have two dogs- Daisy and Jerry Duke. Duke is a springer spaniel: Jerry the Springer, get it? He/I has/have a couple of issues we’ll be addressing after I read Debbie’s series. We both need a little corrective action.

But right now it’s time for me to absquatulate. Besides, I think I just heard Duke going after the mailman. He hasn’t seen him since this time yesterday, so it’s all new to him. I suspect Jerry Duke would like to remove the mailman’s hand at the shoulder. Bad dog! Bad dog!LV

Holley Midgley,
Editor and Publisher