Take it to the Max!
Created | Updated Jan 13, 2009
Silver Sovereign1
Having amazingly passed our 'Good Citizen Bronze Award', we are now enrolled in the Silver class. This takes place at 9 pm in the evenings, a time of day when I am rarely doing anything active myself, more usually being passively entertained either by the telly or at the theatre. So it feels strange. The next shock to the system is that we will no longer be able to use the head collar. This has proved to be a great signaller to Max that he is expected to behave, and we will certainly have our work cut out for us training him how to walk nicely without it. The other main elements of the silver award are a sit-stay, a walk off leash, a wait-recall, and a "Leave it!" command. During our first class the instructor got us to put a piece of food between the dogs' paws, give the "Leave it!" command, and then turned the light out to see which cheeky dogs would try to sneak the food under the cover of darkness!
There are about half a dozen other doggies in the class – we've been with most of them all the way through puppy class and bronze, and they're mostly the big dogs. This is A Good Thing, as the smaller pooches tend to be yappy, which we all find a distraction. We've got Jake and Duke, the German Shepherds, Poppy the gorgeous labradoodle, and Tyson, an older and more sedate black lab. They get on well together and can act as a pack whenever a new dog comes on the scene – our last class finished with a demo from an impressive and superbly trained dog, who could sit, stand, and lie down, all being commanded from a distance. Our pack was very put out by this, and showed its distrust of such a phenomenal animal very vocally!
Nuts….no nuts2
Having discussed it long and hard, and taken advice from trainer, vet and websites, we agreed to have Max neutered this week. He's just started lifting his leg to have a pee, so that's an indication that he's mature enough. We never intended breeding or conformation showing3 him, where an intact dog is required, unless there is a very good reason why not. Plus it prevents prostate cancer later in life. And unwanted puppies. And can make for a calmer dog (less testosterone making him less boisterous and assertive, or likely to bolt if there's a female in heat about). But it's still a controversial subject, and many argue that it is unnecessary, and often forced on animals too soon.
Did you know that the price of the operation is calculated by weight? (Of the dog, not the removed crown jewels) – presumably it's to do with the anaesthetic and recovery time. Max dutifully stood on the scales while the "Wait!" command was translated into a "weight!" reading – 33 kgs.
Dai couldn't bear himself to use the "c" word, and winced at the thought of the operation every time we discussed it. I know we were both very relieved to pick Max up from the vet's in the evening and see him walk out to us not too unsteadily, with his tail still held up high. He did give a little whine when he attempted to do his normal leaping up the stairs in a single bound, but otherwise he doesn't appear to be in much discomfort. We haven't let him run free off the leash until the stitches come out. And I don't know if it's still the after effects of the anaesthetic, but since the op he's slept as good as gold every morning until we get up at 6.30.
What a lovely doggy!
He's such a sociable dog, and he attracts attention wherever we go. After his snip I was taking him for a short walk, on the lead, up to the square nearby, where they were resurfacing the tarmac. One of the workmen came bounding over to me to ask how old he was. Before long he was telling all about Fritz, his 4 year old Weim, showing me pictures on his mobile phone, and we were comparing notes about cleaning those floppy ears, and opinions on tail docking. And empathising about life with what can at times resemble a baby elephant, but what we agreed are the best dogs in the world. Totally unbiased opinions of course!
