The First Dog Training Experience

Why do people train their dogs?  Why don't people train their dogs?

I never thought about training my dog until I got a huge dog that was crazy.  Milly was very loving, good with children and cats.  My son was about 5 years old when she lived with us.  He would run across the room and throw himself on her.  She would grunt and maybe lick his face.  She would lay quietly while our terrified cat tiptoed around her, never bothering her or doing anything to make her more afraid.  Milly was full of fun. Once she climbed a snow drift, looked at me and jumped as though I was going to catch her.  She weighed 90 pounds.  There was no way.  I moved and she fell.  She didn't hold it against me. Milly's problem was that she attacked other dogs mercilessly and ran away from home.  I took her to training.  The trainers were ineffective.  They ran a class with between 10 and 15 dogs.  They recommended using a choke collar. I choked her and choked her.  There was absolutely no effect.  My daughter Lois, took Milly to 4H dog training.  The instructor didn't seem to know how to fix her.  It was discouraging and embarrassing.  On walks, people would clutch their poodles and terriers to their chests in terror when we passed.  They would cross the street.  Milly would pull me on my head as I didn't dare let go of the leash when she saw something she wanted.  Finally we gave up taking her out in public.

Milly and my daughter Lois

I got an underground electric fence for the yard.  Nothing stopped her.  She ran through the electric fence to attack the neighbor's dog every chance she got. Of course she may not have done that had the neighbor's dog not come into our yard daily to attack our chickens.  But I can not control the neighbor's dog. So in order to be responsible for our own pet we decided that Milly had to be chained to keep her in the yard. On a beautiful Sunday in May her chain got caught on my husband's car as he was backing out of the driveway and she was pulled under the wheels.  She died in my arms on the way to the vet.