Dolly Parton has started her 21 day boot camp program at Professional K-9 Solutions in Kenner. I cannot recommend this place enough. Zelda and Josephine went through the program and while I have not ‘enforced’ many of the manners they learned there, I credit the training program with making them into calm happy dogs. The trainers here understand that I want a PET, i.e., a dog I can live with who listens to me when I tell her to get in the garage, or in her”kennel,” but who has her own personality. If you are going to live with dogs, you want confident animals who consider you the Alpha in the pack. Now, Dolly may never fully integrate herself into my pack and I say that because she was clearly neglected and abused in her former life. It might be unrealistic to expect a dog who was institutionalized for over a year and a half to be mentally healthy. (Zelda and Jo are better adjusted than I am!) Still, she has proven herself a resilient dog and she is easy to live with — she has good outdoor habits and she wants to please me (the bar-b-que incident and its violent aftermath did not please me – see previous blog). I was worried how she would react to boot camp but she seems to be doing okay. She’s getting lots of attention. Dogs like to know someone else is in charge and looking after things. (We all do, don’t we? Not to overthink it, but isn’t that what religion is all about?) Dolly Parton just needs to learn she is safe and taken care of. She’s smart and motivated. She loves stuffed animals and fluffy pillows and Animal Crackers. I can’t wait to see how much she has learned when she graduates!
