How to Tackle Behavioural Issues

My puppy, Honey, is adorable, but she wasn’t always like that...

Not long ago, Honey was becoming a bit of a handful and developing A Mind Of Her Own. She seemed to have become totally deaf when I called out any of the commands I had taught her when she was small (not that she was that brilliant at listening then, but at least she tried) and instead would go off and Do Her Own Thing.

 

She would leap and jump about all over the place and not come when I called her. It was beginning to make me feel quite sad, as I realized that I was losing the Special Bond that I had had with Honey when she was a tiny little cuddly puppy that I could just pick up and hold in my arms.

 

Well, I certainly could not do that anymore. Apart from growing, and being naughty, Honey had become really quite strong. Sometimes when we were out for a walk she How to Tackle Behavioural Issues would forget she was on the lead and she’d shoot off after a passing bird or cat, or even sometimes a leaf – yes, she is that daft – and lift me into the air like dogs in cartoons do, and I’d be flying behind her shrieking ‘Heel! Heel! STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO P!’ while she ignored me. She was not yet a year old at this point, but our vet, Nick Harris, said that she would carry on growing until she was a year and a half old.

 

‘Holy Shmoly!’ said my best friend Molly, which is one of the things she says if she is shocked or surprised. ‘If she carries on growing at the same rate, she’ll weigh, oh, at least fifty kilos by the time she’s one!’

 

(Fifty kilos is obviously a ridiculous weight for your average female pooch. But I didn’t think I should point this out to Molly in case she got offended.)

 

Anyway, however much Honey would finally end up weighing, it was clear that she was going to keep getting bigger, so unless I learned to train her better I was DESTINED to be a Laughing Stock among dog

owners – and probably anyone else who saw me walking her in the park as well.

 

On top of all this, Honey had developed some pretty weird and horrid habits around the house. First of all, she had taken it into her head to eat shoes. REAL SHOES. She had decided that she liked nothing more than a tasty bit of slipper or trainer for a snack. That particular habit really got out of hand when Honey ate one of my sister April’s best flip-flops.

 

‘I can’t stand that mutt!’ April screamed, when she discovered Honey with the remains of a gold flip-flop strap hanging out of her mouth. Poor Honey did not know what she had done wrong.

 

‘I’ve told you all about Honey’s shoe FETISH,’ I explained calmly to April. ‘If she gets hold of a shoe, it’s your fault, April. You should not leave them lying around.’

 

For some reason Mum nearly choked on her cereal when I said this.

 

There were other, more terrible incidents that Mum in particular didn’t find at all amusing, like the time that Honey jumped up and pulled the Sunday roast down off the kitchen table when Mum had gone to the door to let in some guests.

 

And the time when she chewed April’s new mobile phone. And the time she ate the birthday cake that

Mum had just made for April. And the totally weird time that she pulled all the dishcloths out of the sink and shredded them around the kitchen.

 

So all of this made me think that I probably needed to find out more about training Honey so that could I find a way to tackle what Molly had started to call Honey’s Behavioural Issues and get back to having a Special Bond with my dog.

 

I decided I should talk to Mum about this, as I thought, being a grown-up and everything, she might have some useful advice on the matter.

 

I was just putting my key in the lock when Mum opened the door at the same time as me and said, ‘Summer Holly Love,’ she said, ‘we have to talk about that hound of yours.’ And I thought, Isn’t it strange how Great Minds Think Alike?

 

 

The Author

Anna Wilson will participate in a book signing open to the public on Wednesday 6 November between 5pm and 6pm at Agenda Bookshop, Tigné Point

An Agenda Kid's Club Party, exclusive for Kid's Club members, will be held on Thursday 7 November from 6pm to 8pm at Agenda Bookshop, Valletta Waterfront