BirdbyBird wrote:Martha. If you can train her to a Solid “sit stay” and/ or “ down stay”. You can place her in one of those positions and tell her to stay... wait. And allow her up when you are ready for her. Train the behaviors in environments that are t as exciting initially and work up to the high excitement “out the door” stuff after you know she understands the basic commands. Then you go about training her that the commands mean the same no matter what the environment is.
Excellent advice, Tina!
A trained dog is a dog loved dog.
When he first came to me, my Big Joe (who was a retired show dog) didn't know any obedience commands. During out nightly walks, he was especially. . . um, lets just say "interested" - in cats (my neighborhood chock-full of loose cats, particularly after dark, which is my preferred time to walk). Joe is on the large-ish side, about 45 pounds (imagine a 45-pound rocket that can go from stationary to 100 mph in about zero seconds - or less
).
Many years previous to this, I had owned (until she passed) a wonderful APBT that I had trained to off-leash and hand signals. She was my joy. Still is, for that matter. I think about her often, even now, with her now 30 years gone from me.
Anyway, after about two abrupt "about turns" (Tina, I'm sure you know what this is) Joe decided that it was much better to pay attention to me than to pay attention to any cat.
I didn't train Joe for any kind of advanced obedience work (like I had for my APBT) but just a basic kind of training so that he was easy to live with.
This paid off - in spades - one time I was out in a remote area of the rural foothills on a rock hunt with some fellow rock hounds. On the way back to the car, sliding down a fairly steep part of the trail (and carrying an armload of rocks, with Joe's leash looped around my wrist) I stumbled a bit (dropping the rocks I was carrying), the leash slipped off my wrist and Joe was off like a shot into the brush, instantly out of sight. It happened in less than a heartbeat.
Panicked for an instant (my companions were also extremely dismayed) I gathered a deep breath, then hollered in a low voice:
JOE! COME!! To be truthful, even I was a bit surprised when he immediately returned to me. My companions were pretty shocked, some of their jaws were gaping!
Had I not taught Joe the "Come" command, there is an excellent chance that I might never have seen him again.
Basic obedience (I'm not talking at competition level, just at home level) really
does make a dog easier to live with, and can make common accidents and injuries avoidable.
A lot of people don't like obedience training (for one reason or another - I'll not go into these reasons here) but, at the most basic, training a dog teaches communication between dog and owner. It is, to my mind, teaching a form of
language - a language that both dog - and owner - can readily understand.
What can be better than that?
Anne
I will sure miss her! We have had some great conversations and have a lot in common. We really clicked the first day we met. Don't often find friends like that in life. 
104 here at my house today. Really looking forward to cooler temps.
) Sunday night just before I was going to take Shadow out for his last potty for the night typically around 2 or later 
(yes that late) 