Margo the Toy Poodle
Margo came to live with myself, my husband and our three young boys when she was a year old. She is very small, very cute and oh-so-soft furred. Of course I did what her previous owner did and carried her around, kissed and cuddled her. I humanised her instantly. She jumped all over the furniture, ate her food by taking it mouthful-by-mouthful up on to the armchair, she did exactly as she pleased. Yet she wasn’t happy, that was clear, she howled when I went to the bathroom. Cried pitifully when I went upstairs and was frantic when I left the house. It didn’t matter to her if my husband and boys were with her, when I wasn’t in sight she was distressed. It made all of us miserable. She was also hostile to strangers and went bonkers went the phone rang. I called Sally because I wanted to extinguish the separation anxiety. That was the main thing that was bothering us. I hadn’t realised how big the true problem was.
When Sally arrived at our home, instead of picking the dog up and giving Sally a treat to give her like I usually would, I allowed Margo to stay on the floor and greet Sally. When I say greet, I mean nip. I was horrified. My sweet little fluffy dog went for Sally. I shrugged it off, ridiculously believing that as she was a tiny little dog she wouldn’t do much damage and so it didn’t matter. Sally made me realise that if Margo was a large breed dog we would have a big problem on our hands, she made me aware that even though Margo is tiny we still had a big problem on our hands. Margo doesn’t know she is small, she needs treating like a large dog and to not be mollycoddled.
The root of the issue stemmed from Margo not having a pack leader and so trying to be the leader herself. This made her anxious. Within 45 minutes Sally had Margo worshiping her, eager to please her and obedient. I have nicknamed Sally “The Witch”, it was like she had worked magic! Best of all the magic continues as we practice the training methods we were taught. Margo still has a few quirks to iron out to become the civilised dog we are aiming for but she is already transformed. She is calm, content and confident. I swear she looks proud of herself. I’m thrilled.
Ultimately it’s all about being the pack leader by behaving as a pack leader in the way the dog understands. It astounds me that by moving and breathing in certain ways tells the dog far more than speaking loudly for that dog to execute a command. Without Sally I’d never have worked it out for myself and I’m sure I’d have been one of those owners screeching over the yapping for Margo to “Be Quiet”.
Gayna