I found a small bite of meat and called Shadow. The sheltie rushed over and sat in front of me. I placed the piece of food on the floor and he eyed it expectantly. I waited several seconds and said brightly, “Okay!” Shadow pounced on the morsel.
“I dare you to try and teach Amos that,” Kelly said.
“I don’t think I can yet. It’s going to require a few more words and some physical contact with a dog that big.
“Give it a try.”
I had Amos’ attention so I placed a piece of food on the floor. He went for it and I scolded him sharply. “Ak, No! Leave it!” I grabbed his collar and hauled him back. “Sit! Amos, sit!” He looked puzzled. I glared at him. “Sit.” He obviously knew what sit meant but he ignored my command. I picked up the piece of meat and held it up where he could see it. “You want it? Sit.” I waited patiently. I added a glare to my next command. “Sit!”
Amos sat.
“Stay.”
I took a step back and put the food on the floor. I didn’t make him wait long. “Okay!” I said, allowing him to break his stay. He didn’t know what okay meant so I picked up the meat and handed it to him. “Gentle, gentle.” I thought I was going to faint when he lunged for it but I toughened up and pulled the bite back. “Gentle,” he took the bite and half my hand. I yanked my hand back, rinsed it off in the sink and flopped down on the couch. I was nearly shaking. Being in training mode helped but the dog was frighteningly big. “We need to work on being gentle.”
“I think you two are going to get along great,” Kelly said.
Bedtime came and the dogs needed to go out. I clipped the leash to Amos’ collar.
“You want me to do that?” Rusty offered.
“No, this is my project. I’ll do it.”
“You don’t have to do everything.”
“I took this on. I’ll stick with it. I hadn’t counted on having to get so close to him this soon but now that I’ve got him I need to take care of him. I wouldn’t want to lose him outside.”
By the time I returned it was obvious we needed to make a trip to town because Amos needed a training collar if the leash was going to be of any use at all. My plans had been to let Amos laze about the house and be near me but it wasn’t going to work that way. Amos’ lazing needed constant attention, which meant training. I had to start at the beginning. First a training collar and a very short leash. I needed to be able to correct him without fiddling with a long leash so the leash I bought was only a handle and clip. With the six-foot leash we practiced heeling. Inside he learned sit and stay. When he’d mastered those commands we learned leave it. That phrase would prevent a lot of stolen food.
Dogs hate to have their nose thumped so I held out a piece of food. When he tried to grab it I thumped his nose and said, “Leave it!” Pretty soon he was shying away from the food when he heard “Leave it.” Next he had to learn to leave plates alone. When he approached the plate it was a correction and “Leave it!” All this training involved getting in Amos’ face and standing up to him.
Saturday night Rusty was on the phone to Kelly. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” A pause while Kelly talked. “No he won’t hurt her. He’s stubborn, but Cassidy is just as stubborn. I see the fear but she just wrestles that big old dog anyway. It’s like watching her walk into the line of fire.” It felt a lot like that too. Every time I got in Amos’ face I expected to lose a limb. “No, I don’t think so. She’s making progress on both of them. It’s just hard to watch.”
Next was down. If I could get him to obey just those commands we’d be in business. I didn’t expect miracles. I knew he’d break his stay and I’d have to correct him and put him back in position. Repetition was the key. Mealtime was the hard part because to correct Amos I had to keep him close. I put him in a down stay and we began eating. When Amos got up I scolded, “No, down, stay!” Amos looked at me like a little kid in time-out. He could only stay for a minute, but was doing well. I thought the constant corrections were going to drive Rusty batty. He thought I’d give up in fear and desperation but I knew an even, firm, constant hand was all Amos needed. By Tuesday he was laying under the table for the whole meal. His reward was just like Shadow’s, a bit of food after a short stay. Amos gobbled the bite and I praised him. “Good boy! What a good stay! Good dog!”
Amos gave me a happy grin and planted his paws on my shoulders knocking me over backwards. I should have just gotten up and put him in a sit again but his action triggered something inside of me and I rolled away huddling in fear. Amos was happy. He lunged at me asking to play.
“Rusty! Help!”
Rusty ran in from the other room and pulled Amos off me. I bolted to the end of the kitchen and stood collecting my thoughts and feelings.
“Babe,” he said in exasperation, “you don’t have to do this. You’re pushing yourself too hard.”
“No, I just reacted badly. It was actually a breakthrough and he was happy because I told him he did a good job. I just need to be prepared when he does that again. Now it’s time to teach him not to jump up. He should be happy when he does a good job but he has to learn to control his enthusiasm.”
“You don’t have to do this,” he repeated. “This is for your good. This isn’t a project to make Amos a reformed dog. When this ceases to be of benefit to you we call Kelly.”
“Well, I obviously need more work,” I replied.
If I knew how hard this was going to be I’d have called Kelly sooner. Every afternoon I took Amos out for a walk. We practiced heeling so he would walk on a leash under control. He was doing very well with the training collar on. I even considered leading him through some of the agility obstacles, but Amos soon put a halt to that idea. I was walking him in the hills behind the house when a rabbit darted out of the brush and bolted away. Amos took off after it, and my hundred and fifteen pounds didn’t slow him down much. He had four feet to pull with. I ran after him pulling back with all my might.
“Heel! Amos, heel!” I commanded as he dragged me along. I planted my feet to give him a good solid correction with the leash, but the rabbit darted under a prickly pear cactus and Amos leapt through it. Oh hell! We hit the cactus and went through it with terrifying quickness. Amos yiped loudly and skidded to a halt. He began pacing, lifting his legs and shying away from the fiery stinging needles lodged in his legs and chest. Every time he moved the spines rubbed and stung. I felt his pain because I was full of spines too and wasn’t quite sure what to do. We couldn’t walk back home in this condition and Rusty wouldn’t be home from work for hours. I couldn’t pull out the spines with my fingers. It was going to require pliers. I pulled my way down the leash, closer to Amos.
“Amos, boy, DOWN, lay DOWN.”
Although it was a painful position, at least he wouldn’t be moving around as much. After pinning Amos down I began petting him, talking to him gently but firmly, trying to calm him. We needed help. Rusty was in town and Kelly was in the mountains, and both men were probably at work. This situation required a man’s help though. I couldn’t think of any woman I knew who would pull cactus spines out of me with a pair of pliers. I opted for Kelly. He’d have better luck controlling Amos. I was glad I had my cell phone on me and hoped Kelly had his too.
“Hey Cassidy, how’s the dog sitting going?” he asked when he answered.
“Kelly, I need help. Are you busy?”
He stopped what he was doing. “What kind of help?”
“Amos and I are full of