Now if you have dogs yourself or know of how puppies can be, they have loads of energy. Brody has calmed some in the last few months since his 1st birthday but not nearly enough. With the sun rising at 6am in the morning (or earlier) Brody feels he needs to wake at this hour as well. If I am working a day shift I am up at this time and will take care of the little bugger and then hand him back into our room to sleep longer with Tyler. On days like today however, Brody held out until about 7:30 and then was fanatic wanting activity and attention.
PROBLEM:
Tyler had a busy day ahead of him and left for work. One would think that I could settle the energy problem within Brody by taking him for a walk. However, this is no small task! It's no secret that Brody does not have much respect for me as I never commanded it from him from the beginning. He loves me and all, but does not like to listen to me in 2 special circumstances: the first being on a walk and the second being when I want to sit on the couch and watch T.V.
In recent months this has continued to frustrate me and I have made multiple attempts (despite what Tyler would tell you) to correct this problem and to try to fix it to no avail. Add in my pregnancy and not wanting a 60# pup jumping on my prego stomch and I pretty much am clueless as what to do with him and walking.
After a short and teary (for prego emotional me) arguement with my husband this morning over our dog's energy level and who is responsible to control it, I attempted again to walk him. Step 1 was to get the leash on and step 2 was to walk. Step 1 is not hard but step 2 requires Brody to not grab the leash from me and prance around the yard with it. Frustrated, I gave up!
SOLUTION:
That is until I went and scrunched my curly hair and had an epiphony while using the water bottle spritzer. I went back outside to where Brody was still prancing around with his leash and got him to come and give it to me. Upon starting to walk with him again he pulled on the leash and continued to try to jump on me and bite my arm. Couple spritzes in the eyes and no longer had a problem! It was a miracle! I then continued with our walk while carrying the spritzer. There were numerous times that I could tell Brody stopped during our walk and had every intention of jumping on me. However he would catch eye of the sprtizer and continue walking!
I hate to have to use this type of enforcement on him, but feel it is better and so far, more effective than hitting, yelling, tugging, and all out throwing him into the ground that we have tried so far.
Now Brody can continue to be "Man's Best Friend" and I found my new best friend (the spritzer) that allows me to be Brody's friend and owner too!
