# Great training day with Louie, lots accomplished :)



## Rocks (Jul 9, 2012)

As most of you know Louie has only been with me a couple weeks even though he is 5 years old. I've tried all of the basic commands on him and the only one he seemed to respond to was sit. Even that was like he had a spring attached to his rear end as he would sit and bounce right back up. Today we worked on sit, stay, lay down and his barking when I went somewhere he couldn't go. I was planning on cutting the grass and didn't want him outside while I was doing it. So when I went out the door I told him to be good and I'd be back. I knew as soon as that door closed he would jet towards the back room and look for me in the window so as soon as I got out the door I walked back to the window. I didn't look at him but I stood right there a few feet from him. I looked around the back yard acting like I didn't know he was there. He stayed quiet and just watched me. Slowly I moved a little further away and did the same, still quiet, still watching me. It took a few minutes but I got all the way to the garage and he didn't make a sound and I didn't let him see me looking at him. I stood there a couple minutes just watching him out of the corner of my eye and he left the window and laid down. I went to work in the garage and after about 20 minutes I heard him bark at the window so I moved into his view with my back to him and within a few seconds the barking stopped. He saw me not paying attention to him and he laid back down. 

After a while I decided to bring him outside because I was working in the garage cleaning stuff up and it was a nice day. I tied him to his back yard runner and went about my business. His back yard runner lets him in the garage, under a tree or in the sunshine, his choice. He watched as I went in and out of the garage, into the house and out of view. If I heard him barking I didn't come right out and when I did I didn't look at him but let him see me. When he stopped barking (which was pretty fast when he saw me) I would turn and walk towards him without looking at him. I didn't want him to think his barking got a reaction or even my attention. When I got back into the garage I said hi to him and told him he was a good boy. I sat down by him and we worked on some commands, sit and stay. After a few attempts sit got the spring removed from his furry butt and he would sit. Then I tell him stay and if he tried to get up I'd repeat the command to sit and when he sat I repeated to stay command. If he tried to get up I gently pushed his butt while repeating the sit followed by the stay command until he stayed in place. Now he will stay for about a minute or until I tell him to go play. A minute isn't bad but its not what I want although it is a start. We repeated this exercise about 5 times and then moved on to lay down. He got this one pretty quick. I told him to lay down and gently used my hand to guide him to a laying position and told him good boy. After only a few tries like that he did the command without my hand. 

Now when I leave the garage I tell him to lay down and he does. Then I tell him I'll be right back and I walk away, if he gets up I repeat the command and he lays back down. We did this for a few hours today while I cleaned the garage. The way I see it is he has to be used to me and if I am busy he needs to understand and let me get things done. I need to be able to walk in and out without him barking and we made great strides in that today. Even when my girlfriend got home he didn't bark he laid right where I told him and just watched.

Just because he has me wrapped around his furry little paw doesn't mean I have to let him know that. Tomorrow of course will be another day and we all know good training one day can be "where did this devil dog come from?" the next. He sure does show a lot of promise though and once he masters the basic commands we'll work on some tricks.


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## Furbabies mom (Jul 25, 2011)

Ok Jerry you can come and train my 3 anytime!! You'd probably throw in the towel, after you met Laurel and Hardy!


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## Rocks (Jul 9, 2012)

Furbabies mom said:


> Ok Jerry you can come and train my 3 anytime!! You'd probably throw in the towel, after you met Laurel and Hardy!


I know better, 3 at a time only gets you 3 furry beasts that can attack from any angle, get into anything, there is no stopping such a force! One might be licking you but its just a distraction so his/her partners in crime can commence plans on their plot to take over the world, starting with your house. :w00t:


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## Furbabies mom (Jul 25, 2011)

rocks said:


> i know better, 3 at a time only gets you 3 furry beasts that can attack from any angle, get into anything, there is no stopping such a force! One might be licking you but its just a distraction so his/her partners in crime can commence plans on their plot to take over the world, starting with your house. :w00t:


exactly!!!!!


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## LizziesMom (May 4, 2010)

Rocks said:


> I know better, 3 at a time only gets you 3 furry beasts that can attack from any angle, get into anything, there is no stopping such a force! One might be licking you but its just a distraction so his/her partners in crime can commence plans on their plot to take over the world, starting with your house. :w00t:


:HistericalSmiley::HistericalSmiley::HistericalSmiley: That is exactly what happens at my house! They send little Liz in to distract me with her cuteness and Isabelle and Darcy carry out their evil plans. And I fall for it EVERYTIME! :smilie_tischkante:


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## Rocks (Jul 9, 2012)

LizziesMom said:


> :HistericalSmiley::HistericalSmiley::HistericalSmiley: That is exactly what happens at my house! They send little Liz in to distract me with her cuteness and Isabelle and Darcy carry out their evil plans. And I fall for it EVERYTIME! :smilie_tischkante:


I have it worse, I have two cats and my younger female Miss Boo is the mastermind, Buddy is the muscle and Louie has yet to have shown his involvement but thats what scares me....

Louie, I couldn't be more proud of. He understands me very quickly. It was almost a totally bark-free day aside from the excited "I'm playing with dad" bark here and there when we were rough housing, fetching, two men just having fun. He likes the garage which is good since I do a lot of work out there fixing guitars and stuff. He is really spoiled now, I gave him a tempurpedic pillow to use as a bed he lays on it, but he also lays on a rug, the garage floor (just bathed him yesterday, he didn't care) I'm in the middle of cleaning the garage so I've been doing lots of sweeping so the floor is at least somewhat cleaner. All the bad stuff is out of his reach. He has enough runner to go in and out of the garage to the back yard and he likes to lay in the grass under a tree in the shade. He used to bark every time he heard the door open or close, I've got that stopped, he just waits and wags his tail.

But I must say, the best part of the day was when I reached down to Louie, he jumped up and I picked him up and he licked my face and put his head on my shoulder and just made himself comfortable with me carrying him like I was getting ready to burp him, lol.


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## Maidto2Maltese (Oct 19, 2004)

Rocks said:


> But I must say, the best part of the day was when I reached down to Louie, he jumped up and I picked him up and he licked my face and put his head on my shoulder and just made himself comfortable with me carrying him like I was getting ready to burp him, lol.


Ahhh now that just warmed my heart!!!


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## maggieh (Dec 16, 2007)

Rocks said:


> But I must say, the best part of the day was when I reached down to Louie, he jumped up and I picked him up and he licked my face and put his head on my shoulder and just made himself comfortable with me carrying him like I was getting ready to burp him, lol.


Isn't that just the best when they do that???? Tessa does this at night when she's getting really tired and has even gone to sleep in my arms that way.


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## Rocks (Jul 9, 2012)

maggieh said:


> Isn't that just the best when they do that???? Tessa does this at night when she's getting really tired and has even gone to sleep in my arms that way.


Yeah, it sure is. I can see he has some kind of internal battle going on, part of him wants to obey my command the other part wants to go nuts running, jumping and playing. Lucky for him he gets to do both so it is a win-win.


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