Murphy - Friend Or Foe?
I grew up with dogs. My mom is a dog-lover. We’ve had everything from cocker-spaniels, dachshunds, boxers and even a poodle. We never took the dogs for a walk or puppy class. When the dog peed in the house, her nose was rubbed in it and she was thrown outside. My mom keeps an immaculate house. She trained the dog to go in one spot in the yard. She even trained Brandy, the dachshund to put her toys away. This woman likes a clean house!
Phil and I adopted our first dog, Bo at 4 months. He was house-broken and knew how to sit and stay. Other than jumping up and chewing, he was a mellow dog. He quickly learned to fetch and was able to go off leash. Unfortunately, we lost him to Addison’s disease early November. The house became quiet and we knew we wanted another dog.
Murphy’s owners bred their 2 year old female dog, Princess (Murphy’s mom) for the first time. They had 9 puppies. We fell in love with the fuzzy fellow. He was spunky and the biggest dog in the litter. We wanted a dog with personality. We brought Murphy home as soon as possible. The breeders wanted to get rid of the dogs. I guess caring for 9 puppies is tough.
Phil and I thought we would be able to train Murphy on our own. We didn’t need classes. We had such a good experience with Bo that we thought we just needed to be consistent and we’d end up with a dog like Bo.
Our first mistake was not signing up for puppy-classes like our vet recommended. Since Murphy was only 6 weeks old, he lacked socialization skills. He needed to learn where he fit in with the pack. We didn’t really know what Dr. Cannon meant by that. We just knew that we needed to show Murphy that we are in charge.
6 weeks later, Murphy has almost tripled his body weight and has really sharp teeth. He has taken to nipping the back of pant legs when you walk by. If you don’t play with him he challenges you with a snarly bark. He steals toilet paper whenever he gets the chance, but this is minor. The main thing is that our teenager’s friends are afraid of him. We are afraid his nipping will hurt someone and we can’t have a dog that bites.
All the puppy classes are full. We don’t know when the next ones will start. Murphy is out of control. We need private lessons. Our vet recommended Stacy Neary, a dog trainer that comes out to your house.
Stacy consulted with us for an hour yesterday. Part of the problem we are experiencing is Muphy left home too soon. He needed more time with his mom and siblings. He needed to learn how to behave in the pack. We learned that we were making some classic mistakes with Murphy. We are treating him like a person rather than the pack animal he is. We have to change our behavior to elicit the kind of behavior we want from our dog. Human beings feel guilty about not spending time with their dog. They tend to pet and praise too much. The dog doesn’t have incentive to behave if they know they’ll get petted any way. The dog needs to earn the praise. We signed up for her complete program of 10 classes. Watch out Murphy your life is about to change!
Although I got a late start, I’ve been a serious runner since 1994. I ran my first marathon in 1995 on my 30th Birthday. It’s been my goal to run the Boston Marathon since then. I missed qualifying by 12 minutes that year. I needed to run 3:40 and ran 3:52. Running in the most prestigious marathon, is the ultimate for most runners. The fact that you have to qualify, only fueled my competitive juices.
Over the next 9 years I ran 6 more marathons. I love running so much that I became a 
