Early Days Yet

My dog Llewellyn is very strange. He can't or won't walk on a leash worth a darn. But every time I open the drawer in the little stand by the front door, the one with his leash in it, he leaps and whirls like a small tornado. "We get to go out?! O bliss! O ecstasy! We're going out!"

I find now that it's much the same with his new Halti collar. I get it out to train him on it, and you'd think he was being invited to the canine version of Disney World.

But put it on him? He's pawing, mouthing, doing everything he can to get it off. "I don' wan' this thing on me!! Take it off! Now!"

The dog trainer said only leave it on him a minute or so in the early stages, so that's what I'm doing. But as soon I take it off and he can see it in my hand again, there he goes jumping and dancing, doggie mouth grinning with glee, Mr. Excitement thinking it means something Wonderful is about to happen.

Maybe it's the pieces of smoked sausage I'm using to reward him for trying the new collar. Maybe they inspire just a bit too much rapture.

We'll keep on working on it. He needs to get used to that collar. There's no reason why he shouldn't-- After all, it's early days yet.