T has been reading a book. She wants to learn how dogs think and become ‘pack leader’. What pack is this? Is there something she’s not telling me? T now struts around the park and I’m supposed to obey her. It is embarrassing, her head held high imagining she is someone important and talking to me in a firm voice. Who does she think she is - Anne Robinson?
Every time I try to take her to a particularly interesting spot to have a sniff she stops and we have to stand still for a few minutes, all the time T has her head in the air. What is this supposed to achieve? All it does is hold me up, I have to wait until she starts to move again before I can go to the sniff place, which I always do, of course.
I know T has been reading all about dog psychology because she keeps telling me, usually when we are having a walk. It can get a little tedious at times but it stops her from singing so it does have some use. She has told me how I am supposed to react when she does commanding things. So I intend to do the opposite and she will think it doesn’t work and give up, everything can then go back to normal. Normal being I take T for a walk and we go where I want. Apparently, this psychology thing is about thinking you’re in charge and then you will be. Well, P thinks he’s slim but he isn’t.
I have noticed that T’s new ‘calm assertiveness’ as she calls it has had an effect - on P. He has become very obedient; he even offered to cut the grass the other day. All T did was mention that it needed cutting and he immediately said he’d do it, unheard of normally. P is not a man of action.
According to this psychological approach the dog is supposed to become ‘calm submissive’. I’m calm but never submissive. P however, is a different matter, submissive is his middle name these days, there’s only one thing to say – P, you are the weakest link. Goodbye!
