On Star Wars Day, we got a dog. This wasn’t our first dog; we have two Cavaliers (three if you count my mother’s) already. No, this was a new puppy. A sweet little 8 (maybe 10? Who knows?) week old lab (“She sure looks purebred to me!” the girl at the shelter said all confident and perky) (hint: not a purebred lab. has developed a shihtzu underbite. dna proves it.). A little rambunctious, but, look! She’s tiny! She runs UNDER our little 20 pound short-legged Cav! How CUTE!
I mean, really. Could you resist this face?
So you understand how I was screwed at first sight, right? Yeah.
Getting a third dog ranks among the top 5 most insane things I have ever done.
TechPapa was all gung ho. “Yes!” he said, from out of town, when I sent him the shelter’s glamour shot, “Go get her!” I gave him 15 chances to say no. I practically BEGGED him to tell me no. But did he? Obviously not.
Not even 36 hours after first seeing her picture, she was ours. Helluva impulse buy adoption.
Earl was smitten the moment she saw the sweet little puppy in the kennel. And the puppy adored Earl. The Humane Society called her Coco. Earl insisted on Olivia. After the cartoon pig. Which means our dog has her own obnoxious little singsong theme song! Awesome!
Olivia immediately fell for Quinn, our Ruby Cav. Quinn, on the other hand, immediately learned to just put up with Olivia. After all, the Black and Tan Rhett (the smallest) is and always will be the Alpha, and that was settled at first sniff. Quinn begrudgingly took the puppy under his wing and began to teach her the ways of the house, like how to use the doggy door, where we stored the food, how to open the playroom door, and how to pee and poop in the most opportune places on the patio simply to irk Papa.
See the size difference? Our cute little puppy! Next to the 25 lb Quinn and the 20 lb Rhett. She’s so SMALL! So tiny! So innocent! So cute! And her paws! They’re so LITTLE! How can she possibly ever be that big?
And then one day, the paws unfurled like umbrellas. And kept unfurling. You know that old Lily Tomlin flick “The Incredible Shrinking Woman?” Olivia was like that, only in reverse, before our very eyes.
Suddenly, this was life. A big dog with an earflop and a constantly photobombing child attached at the hip.
OMG, she’s such a sweetheart and completely patient with Earl (with the undying gratitude of the Cavs who were, quite frankly, ready to be left alone for a while). Inseparable, these two. But Olivia was growing by leaps and bounds, and her brain wasn’t quite adjusting to her size. She thought she was still that tiny little girl, when in fact…
…Hi there! Just take up the entire front seat of my Explorer, why don’t you?
Life was getting to be a challenge. She wouldn’t listen, didn’t come when called. I couldn’t walk her because she would nearly yank my arm off no matter which leash/collar/harness combination I used. She thought she was still a lapdog, but was also quite aware of her ability to reach anything and everything on tabletops and countertops.
We’d done some clicker training early on with an excellent trainer, but Olivia quickly learned that if we didn’t have a clicker and a treat in hand, she was still in charge. So I started doing some research.
At the Balancing Act Roadshow in Charlotte, I saw a guy walking around, weaving in and out of an insane number of people with a dog by his side. Off leash! The dog was LEASHLESS but stuck by this guy like he was on a 2′ lead. Right there. Ignoring any and all distractions. DUDE! I WANT THAT!
I managed to tenuously keep the name in my head until I got home and could Google aimlessly until I saw a logo that sparked a memory. Eureka! I had found them!
I immediately jumped up, clicked my heels together, shouted “Eureka,” and promptly committed myself to 15 new projects putting dog training at the bottom of the pile.
Of course, things weren’t going to get better on their own.
In mid-October, I called Turk Akbay of Off Leash Dog Training in Charlotte and set up a consultation. He saw potential, and TechPapa and I didn’t even have to talk about it beyond an exchanged nod before we were signing her up for JumpStart™ Training. She would go on October 23rd. Well, she would have gone on the 22nd, but the groomer was coming on the 23rd, and if I was going to send my puppy off for 1-2 weeks, I was going to make sure she was all cleaned up and presentable.
(Note aforementioned shihtzu underbite.)
Olivia was ready. I was pumped. Earl was devastated. To the point that she told her second grade teacher the next day she needed to talk to the school counselor to deal with her grief.
Drama? Huh? I have no idea where she gets that….
Fortunately, Turk, his wife Jill, and the rest of the Off Leash crew were incredibly understanding and posted pictures of our sweet Livvy every single day on their Facebook page for Earl to see. At the end of the first week, they even sent us a card from Olivia updating us on her progress.
Today, 12 days later, we trekked to the U.S. National Whitewater Center to meet Turk and a few other dogs to pick Olivia up, then go on a short hike and swim (for the dogs). During the outing, he showed us the ins and outs of her training, helped her begin to transition from listening to him to listening to us (primarily me, but by the time we left, TechPapa and Earl were even being listened to from time to time!), and showed us how amazing it can be to have a dog that will listen…even while being off leash! I would have taken pictures, but I was too busy being amazed at my dog.
Talk about freedom! We’re a long way from done, but Turk has a lifetime guarantee on his training, and we have a few upcoming home lessons, then group lessons to continue her growth as an absolutely awesome dog.
I think she also grew 6″ while she was gone, but I could be exaggerating. Although the perspective on this picture doesn’t really help convince me otherwise.
I swear her head’s really not bigger than Earl’s, but dog has gotten bigger!
This afternoon and evening have been wonderful. Earl had friends over, and Olivia didn’t jump all over them. She didn’t bark at every little leaf. She mostly came when called (as I said, there’s a bit of a transition period), and she’s learning to incorporate her training into the rules of our house. Tonight, we had steak for dinner, and she stayed in her place for the longest time.
Honestly, I was completely impressed. And I completely understood when, with a string of drool dangling from her mouth, she did an about face and slinked out the dog door to sit on the porch until we were done.
Olivia, dear, I really don’t blame you. That was, perhaps, a bit cruel of me. But you handled it like a champ! I can’t wait to see what you can do as we continue on this training journey together!
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Disclaimer: This is NOT a paid or sponsored or even requested review. This is completely based off of my own experience and my own desire to spread the word about how awesome the folks at Off Leash Dog Training in Charlotte, NC, are. If you have a great dog you love, but needs some work, you need Turk!
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