How To Talk Dog

I've posted pictures of our current 4 legged family members, Reccee and Sneakers. The other pictures are of family members who are no longer with us but greatly missed. My husband kept repeating like a mantra "When Little John goes, NO MORE DOGS!" At the time I agreed with the reasons why but did wonder if we could follow through with that. Little John passed away on a Friday and Bruce left on Sunday morning for a week long business trip. Great, now I had to deal with my own grief as well as our 2 sons grief as a single parent. By Monday night I was searching the net for another puppy and even sent Bruce a link to a sight for Bullmastiff Puppies for Sale. Of course he messaged back NO NO NO. So the debate on getting another puppy began. At one point, I told him if he needed to reach me during a certain time frame to call my cell because MapQuest said I'd be gone about 4 hours. Luckily (or maybe not), I decided to not go and do as I pleased but wait for my husband to come into agreement with me. Yeah, I'm stubborn and pigheaded at times...maybe :) He came home and agreed to getting another dog but wanted to at least pick the breed and not just get another Bullmastiff. Well we ended up 2 days later with Sneakers, an Olde English Bulldog who was a couple days shy of 6 weeks. Already many mistakes were being made in this short period of time on my part. Talking my husband into something, picking a puppy who I picked regardless of what my hubby or kids thought, but most of all taking it at the young age it was. 8 weeks is the youngest a puppy should leave his momma and with some breeds it's even 10-12 weeks. A lot of socially acceptable behavior is taught by the momma and other litter mates in this crucial period. Sneakers lacked that natural instruction time and we began to deal with the outcome. At times we thought we'd have to take the dog back or give him to someone else who had the energy level to deal with him and his problems. Then we got the bright idea that Sneakers needed a playmate to help with his unacceptable behavior and bringing another dog would help him learn. So the search was on for another dog. We consulted a couple of breeders and they all concurred that Sneakers needed an older puppy who would assume Alpha role over him . In came Reccee who is 3 months older than Sneakers. Peace was restablished in the home and life got so much better. Reccee was affectionate with us and just wanted to please us in whatever way. She took care of Sneakers until about a month ago when his size passed hers and he starting vying for Alpha Dog. Oh no! Now some of our issues with Sneakers had resurfaced but this time he had a partner to try and egg on in joining him. At our wit's end, we noticed the trailer on the vet's parking lot called "How To Talk Dog". Sneakers went in for a vaccination and because of my catheter, I had my son handle, I mean wrangle him into the office. Sneakers was jumping up on everyone who came within a 20 foot radius of him while dragging my oldest son behind him. Talk about embarrassing! Information about How To Talk Dog was available and I went home with a business card to make the call. I made the call from the van while driving home, I couldn't wait to get home to make the call. Last night was our appointment with Matt and Sherrie. They spent about 4 hours with us but a lot of that time was due to us telling our war stories about Sneakers. Within 15 minutes, both dogs were lying on their mats in the TV room being submissive with an occasional correction. Now the next phase, bringing in Matt and Sherrie's dogs to see if our dogs would remain where we had put them. Esox and Moses were brought to our front door and told to sit. At first I thought they both belonged to either Matt or Sherrie. Actually, they each had brought a dog. With the front door open and their owners sitting in our TV room those beautiful black labs sat shoulder to shoulder on the porch until they were told to come in and lay down in the foyer. Some corrections needed to be made with Reccee and Sneakers but very minor compared to what it would have been. Esox and Moses were then invited to come into the TV room and they laid down in between where Reccee and Sneakers were laying. Within 5 minutes all 4 dogs were laying on their sides, sound asleep. Matt warned us that the next 2 or 3 weeks would not be fun for us because we have to establish we are the pack leaders. The corrections do not hurt the dogs. A choke collar and long lead is used for each dog. The dogs remained sleeping on the floor for the remainder of the time Matt and Sherrie were with us. Sherrie was concerned about me being able to handle the corrections because of my catheter. (I'm not suppose to lift, pull, or push anything over 10lbs until this is fully healed).
This morning I got up, fed the dogs, let them outside to do their business and put the leads on them and took them to their spots. The dogs laid down and slept off and on. The kids woke up came out, the dogs stayed. Yes, I did need to do some corrections and I'll see tonight when I change my bandaging, how my catheter handled it. They laid there for 2 hours until I let them get a drink and go out and do their business again. As I right this they are asleep in their crates. For the first couple of weeks, if there is a time where I can't watch them constantly, then they are in their crates. They seem happy and contented and relaxed. This has been a lengthy post so I stop here but there is so much more I could say. I highly reccommend How To Talk Dog after 12 hours of use. I'll keep you posted on how it progresses.