Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Epileptic dog

You know, I have never said that Dante was the most well-trained dog. He is very smart (usually), and often well behaved. Sure he used to go after food like he was a starving child, dig through garbage at my folks' house (my trash has always been under the sink, so he's never dug through our garbage), and when I first got him, would tear up any book, shoe, or CD case he could. But most of that was puppy stuff. When it came to begging, I would have none of it, and he is generally on good behavior when I eat.

Just about two years after he entered my life, I met Corbett. Corbett has been a bit less of a disciplinarian than I have, and for the most part that is fine. You can see it in the way Dante treats him, going up to Corbett and looking adorable, knowing full well that he just needs patience and quite likely Corbett will give in. At dinnertime, Dante stares at Corbett, again with that same patience.

But we hit a new low last night. I do believe in the last five years, Corbett has succeeded in untraining this dog. Dante was to get a treat, so Corbett broke up Pupperoni into several pieces (as giving multiple treats is more fun than giving one), and Dante went completely apeshit. Corbett sat on a chair and Dante began flailing his front paws around (the excitement making him not realize if he should "give five" or "give a high five," and as no command was given, he just did both, over and over, simultaneously. What resulted was what appeared to be either a dog having multiple seizures, or a completely untrained psychotic canine that was so excited he might pee himself.

He's over seven-years-old, and it's like Benjamin Button, he's moving backwards while we all are going forward. In a few years perhaps he'll start teething.

by Topher at 9:18 AM |