Operation Doughnut

When we got Dudley, like any responsible pet owner, I knew that there would be dog related expenses. I expected to buy huge bags of dog food, treats, toys, dog beds, and the gas to make many trips to the dog park. I however did not expect to purchase an air horn. You know like those really loud push button cans of noise that annoying people bring to graduation ceremonies and big public events? That’s right ladies and gentleman on Wednesday I bought my very own air horn- FOR MY DOG. I’m positive this makes me sound like I’ve gone off the deep end, so let me explain. 

The exact one we bought!

We adore our little ball of fluff. He has more personality than his little body can hold, and twice as much energy. This makes for a super social, super fun, but also crazy dog. Because of his crazy energy the whole training aspect hasn’t been very easy. He graduated puppy kindergarten and I’ve been working with him since he was a baby to train him and hopefully mold him into a polite well mannered dog. He on the other hand is stubborn and smart, so has decided that he isn’t going to make it easy on me. Sure, he can sit, stay, and comes when called about 80% of the time (20% he looks at me like “nice try!” and goes on with what he was doing before). He knows words like outside, upstairs, dog park, walk, and for sure cookie. But he pretends half the time to not know the word “No”.

With all this being said, last week I took him to his second Dog Behaviorist Consult. I know I know, I don’t want to hear it, my dog has a “shrink”. But since I’m dealing with a canine who thinks he’s human and is more obstinate than a toddler stuck in the middle of the “terrible 2’s” I had to turn to the professionals. After 45 minutes of talking about behavior, planning our next training steps, and working through potential situations one of our solutions was a noise deterrent. And voila – then came the air horn.

Explaining our new plan and training aids to Michael resulted in a lot of rolled eyes and sighs. However, he was quick to say in order to use the air horn we needed a code word, and what code word could be more perfect than doughnut? (If you are shaking your head and wondering where in the heck Michael could come up with that - then you are right on the same page as I was).  I personally was hoping I’d never have to use the code word, but nothing with Dud is that easy.

Wednesday night Michael was ironing his clothes (yes ladies, I’m lucky and he does all his own ironing) and Dudley and I were sitting in the living room watching TV. Somehow Dudley got a wild hair and started attempting to “nest” on my couch. Nesting of course means he was digging and digging like crazy trying to make himself the perfect comfy place to lay down. After 3 attempts to make him stop, I had to call in reinforcements. I sent Michael the code word, and thought I was prepared. However based on how far I jumped, clearly I was not. Michael pushed that button, and both Dudley and I flew off the couch in panic. Dudley, clearly confused, then went on a hunt to figure out where that ridiculous sound came from, while I on the hand, had to sit back down and find my breath. I was laughing so hard I was crying, and I thought my heart was going to jump right out of my chest.

Dudley Doodle

Since then, Dudley hasn’t attempted to dig at my couch once. A coincidence? Maybe. But I’ll take what I can get for sure. At this point our newest training approach seems to be working, but for our neighbors sake I’m hoping we won’t have too many more times where we need to use it. Who would have thought all this for a dog? But with a face like that, how could you not love him. If you only know how many times I tell Dudley “It sure is a good thing you are cute”…