Remember Husky the Menace? My lopsided ear dog? The plant eater, autogate/car/everything else destroyer? The monster that we banished to the never never land of our backyard? Well, he had remained at the backyard ever since and as a result of lack-of-attention/training/discipline (he is basically left to do whatever he likes), he had transformed from a Monster to a Demon.
It was impossible to pat him without having him snapping at our hands. He already left one too many scratches on the husband's arms. He is not exactly attacking, he is just hyperactive and didnt know that he is not suppose to do that. When the husband feeds him, he would push him, jump on his back and mind you, this is one strong dog. He barks incessantly and do not respond to 'No' or 'Stop'. He would probably just pause for sec before continuing again not giving a toot about it.
The last straw was when he left two bite marks on the maid's leg when she tried to bathe him like how she always did since he was a puppy. That was like 4 months ago and since then, that part of the job had became our responsibility and naturally, we failed miserably. He simply doesnt like being touch! What we did was just drench him with a water hose. Done. Considered bathed!
We contemplated of giving him up (yeah, shame on us!). But the thought of not knowing if he is safe or warm enough bothers us. We decided to give it one last try, and another, and another.... We came up with many ideas hoping to re-train him.
1) One of it was, to take him out for a run to drain him off hoping he would have less energy to be aggressive. Verdict: Mission failed (drastically). We cant even get a collar on him in the first place. He kept aiming to bite off our hands whenever we are anywhere near his head.
2) Then the husband thought probably Husky doesn't like the feeling of a collar around his neck. That's why he bites. He felt threaten. And so we bought him a set of harness. Verdict: Mission failed too (horribly). Putting on a collar was already hard enough and what were we thinking? A harness? That's a little over ambitious arent we?
3) At this point, we still thinks that he felt threaten with the collar/harness/leash. And so we embarked on playing/training him while holding onto the collar/harness/leash so that he will get used to the sight of it and won't feel threatened by it. Hopefully, over time, he would stop attacking us when we try to put them on him. Ermm, well, it doesnt make a difference. Not even a tiny weeny bit. He still attack.
4) Then we caught an episode of Caesar Milan and used the opposite side of a leash to create a loop to hoop over his neck. With that, we managed to take him out for a short walk before he quickly learned to reverse, tilt his head, and voila! Neck out of loop in a sec. Mission failed.
We were once again back to where we started. Contemplating of giving him up. We ran out of idea/tricks to train him. At some point, I was jokingly telling the husband, let's sell whatever we have, pay Caesar Milan to come over to help us. Lols.... I even tried writing to Caesar for advise but my post somehow disappeared when I clicked on 'Post' and then a bunch of registration requirement pops up. I got lazy.
Photo from arcatapet.com
5) We finally caught sight of a tiny light at the end of our dark tunnel when we chance upon this huge tug-of-war thingy at our regular petshop. An idea manifested! The husband suggested that we get that (since Husky likes to bite so much), drain him off his initial burst of energy (according to another episode of Caesar Milan), before trying to put him on a choker (yeah, we decided to get him a choker in the end) and it actually works! He got drained not because of tugging at the rope (I know, what a loser!) but running around the rope :p We left the choker on him for a few days to let him get used to it before taking him out for a walk.
Couple of days later, we finally succeeded in hooking on the leash to his choker (without getting snap at) after draining him for awhile with the tug-of-war rope. He was pretty apprehensive of the outside world initially but he is getting a hang of it.
Yesterday (3rd outing for Husky), we managed to give him a good bath without any injuries to anyone. He just stood there, calm & steady for a good shampooing and brushing :) ! *happy*
And today, the 4th fourth outing, we don't even need to drain him first with the tug-of-war rope at all. The moment we have the leash in hand, he immediately sat in front of us waiting to be taken out. He even tilted his neck a little upward during the process... hahahaha... smart!
We are both simply over the hill now smiling from ear to ear! Mission impossible is finally looking possible! Hip hip hoorah! Hopefully this change of behaviour stay. He is such a lovely dog when he is cooperative like that. :)
The man & his best friend.
