Jimmie Tate

Most of the dogs seem to get accustomed to the confinement and kennel routine after a reasonably short time. This does not seem to be the case with Jimmie Tate.  He's very young, a year and a half, has been at the shelter about a month and struck me as being  overly excited by the environment.  His profile indicated a need for more leash training so I decided that I would focus on that.  He's a real beauty, a Shar-Pei / Bull Terrier mix.  In the three years I've been volunteering I've found the Bull Terriers to generally be very people oriented.  Just the touch of my hand petting him calmed him quickly and he stood quietly to get harnessed.  However as soon as we left his kennel, the sights and sounds of the shelter had him shrieking, barking and pulling as we made our way down the hall.  I held him very close but it did not help.

A stop in the exercise yard to burn off some of his incredible excitement and energy was a must.  He went tearing around  and was not very responsive to me.  We began our walk,  I wanted to get him to a quieter area before beginning the leash training.  In the interim, he was jerking and pulling  severely.  Once we were off by ourselves, I just stopped.  Jimmie Tate jerked, pulled, shrieked, you name it, he tried it.  When he eventually stopped we moved forward for about 10 feet with lots of praise and kind words for his great (but short) improvement. After just about 20 minutes of this process Jimmie Tate was walking on the leash and listening to me for cues; he was a different dog (video).

On our return we stopped in the exercise yard.  This time he  was very responsive to me, demonstrating, come, sit, and was close to down, but not quite.  He is a very fast learner and will be so much better when he has a home of his own.  Let's hope it's soon.