Even though the title of this blog is how to train a dog, I have no idea how. I have a little fat dog (Sheltie) that I love more than I have ever loved an animal, but I can’t train him to do anything. I have watched videos about how to train a dog to fetch, heel, shake hands etc. and he just looks at me like I don’t know what I am talking about. He is with me all the time at home and sits beside my chair at night always waiting for some attention or a scrap of food.

When he was a puppy, he was wild. Because we live in a neighborhood, I couldn’t let him out in the yard without supervision. I didn’t love the idea of putting on clothes, shoes and a coat to walk him every morning so I hammered a steel stake near the front door so when he was little I would just loop his leash on that stake so he could do his business each morning and evening and I wouldn’t have to stay out with him when it was cold. By doing that, he learned to stay close to the house so now he just goes out by himself and stays close to the front of the house and sits on the porch until I come and get him.

One thing he does that tickles me is in the morning when I let him out, he will look back to see if I am watching. If he knows I am not watching, he will pee right in front of the door but if he looks back and sees me watching he will go to the flower bed or the grass. This morning we played this watching game and I decided I might buy one of those training collars that give him a little shock. I thought instead of putting the collar around his neck I might just attached it his little private part. Ha. I bet that would take care of the problem.

So, my dog has a vocabulary of about eight words like eat, bed, sit, stay etc. and he doesn’t do any other tricks like fancy dogs, but I love the little fellow. KT