Rough Beginning

At the end of 2006, I did too much. Rather than have a mid life crisis, I gave in to a 15 year wish to have a dog of my own to do fun stuff with. It may not have been the best time to get a puppy.  Or perhaps Amika came to me then because I needed someone to kick me out of a bad emotional rut.

The year 2007 was a struggle. I spent most of it in a very tense, serious and sad space. This was burn-out and it was ugly. I’d managed to hold it off through 2006, but then I did too much and got a puppy. Amika grew up with as much or more scolding as positive reinforcement. The worst part was that I knew I was doing it wrong, but was unable to change my behaviour.

Some things that I thought I did right ended up being dead wrong for my dog.  As a new owner, I put problem behaviour under the heading of “rambunctious puppy” and thought she would grow out of it. I gave up the obedience club when she was about 7 months old because I couldn’t get her attention. I gave up on the dog park when she was about 7 months old, because she was being too “obnoxious” in her play. We kept going to tracking club, which started at 6 months.

I knew I had a big problem at around 10 months. She would lunge and start barking fit to kill. I knew that it was frustrational- I had let her know from the beginning (puppy class and dog park) that she could race full tilt at other dogs to incite mad play. I didn’t know what to do, and all I could do in my emotional condition was to “react” by snarling at her or trying to hold her down.

I did do a lot of things right, but on the whole it was not a very good beginning.