Quote:
Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke
You all know that Wyatt McRiot's nickname is Crash, because he crashes into walls, people, trees... all at high speed.
My family took him out to the forest and ran the dog snot out of him. My son went across a large meadow and sent Crash to me, at a gallop. He then called him back and we called him back and forth between us until his tongue was hanging out.
Then we drove around a bit more and found a good safe place to turn him loose and my son climbed a steep mountainside and we called Crash back and forth up and down the mountain until his knees were wobbly.
Then Crash did a difficult session of sit, down, stay, go, and sit and down at a distance. Very hard mental work for the dog. Especially since it involved the presence of real beef jerky which occupied about 99% of his brain power, leaving just 1% of thought to try to figure out what we wanted.
He got back to the car and fell down into a dead sleep. He was crashed out and snoring all the way home.
Unfortunately, the drive home was long enough that he slept it off and was ready to run across the ceiling again by the time we arrived home.
He's sleeping on my feet right now, so he is, at least, a tiny bit settled.
|
Hahaha...I'm laughing because I had a dog like that. She didn't crash into everything, but man, that dog had serious energy.
I used to live in Seattle and in Redmond, there's a gigantic dog park. There's no fencing, it's just acres of park. You will find several water holes where dogs can swim, trails, and huge fields. I mean, HUGE fields of grass for them to run and run and run and run and run.
I took my dog Pandora there one day, and I ran her ragged for four hours. I then took her back the next day, and I ran her ragged for another 4-5 hours. When I brought her home that next day, she went straight to her crate and konked out.
For a few hours.
When she woke up, it was like I hadn't done a thing with her all weekend.
When I moved across country, I had some people I knew that had a 10 year old daughter at the time. I knew that I wouldn't have a lot of time for Pandora as I was trying to get settled, so after quite awhile of talking back and forth with these people I knew, I took a slight detour, and made a pit stop halfway across the country to meet them....and hand over the keys to my dog.
Their 10 year old was a hyper little thing and she and my dog hit it off instantly. It was not an easy decision, it was very hard for me to do, and even up to the very last second, when I walked out of that hotel room where we met up, I wanted to turn back and say, "No...forget it, I'm taking her with me", but I did not.
That dog had more energy than I could keep up with at the time, and I knew that she would have a much better time/life with this family who had two adults, and an energetic 10 year old who already loved my dog.
(For the record, my roommate brought this dog home one day on an impulse, failed to do anything to train her or care for her. I ended up doing all of the work because even though it wasn't my dog, I'm not going to just sit there and let a dog be neglected. When the roommate moved out, she left the dog. I have choice words for people like that.)
Anyway, the point was, Pandora finally found someone who could exhaust her on a daily basis much easier than I could. Smart dog, full of energy, good dog...just needed a way to burn it all off every single day. This dog was non stop...I've met energetic dogs before, but not a single one had this dog's amount of energy...not even my current two hoodlums combined. They pick up commands easily...but with all of that intelligent energy, it's a lot of work. As you well know, OP.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
