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Pooch Perfection

BY CONNIE BLOOM, MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE NEWS

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 10:22 AM CDT

Buddy, the Shar-Pei-shepherd mix, doesn't bark at the other dogs anymore. The recycled mutt has transcended his bad luck and become a good citizen who fawns over his human sidekick, Heather Bellinger, 42, who suffers from seizures.

"Heather is my 42-year-old special daughter," said Norma Bellinger, "she is mildly retarded and has about four seizures a month. When she has one, Buddy goes right to her, licks her face and stays with her."

The pooch bunks with her when she is sick.

But he wasn't wearing his halo when the Stow, Ohio, family brought him home in September, said Heather's mom. He didn't know how to walk on a leash, sit or stay. If someone dropped a bottle of pills, he would have scarfed them up. His future depended on learning some life-saving commands, like "leave it."

So the whole family, including dad, Ray, enrolled in the inexpensive, ongoing group classes at PetsMart at Chapel Hill, N.C.

"It takes less time to work with a dog than chase after him," said PetsMart trainer Patty Vesalo. "The idea is to integrate him into your daily life. Just having a support system is valuable - everybody has problems with the dog. It helps owners to relax."

Dogs need to know who's boss, she said. The dog is happier when the owner establishes him or herself as the alpha, the leader of the pack. Obedience training is essential to the success of the union.

"Most of the dogs you'll find in shelters are there because they have a behavior problem," said Ken McCort, animal behavior consultant. "That's the sad truth. They go to the bathroom in the house or whatever. People give them up for adoption. Training is really important, it's a form of communication, teaching the animal how to respond to specific cues, which will teach them how to live with you."

People who don't train their pooches can't talk to them, he said. Their quest for the perfect tail-wagger goes unfulfilled.

"Everybody wants to have a good house pet," said Linda Davis, an assistant trainer and member of the All-Breed Training Club of Akron at Summit County Fairgrounds. The club was established in 1949 to teach people how to teach their dogs. The thinking used to be that dogs should not be trained until they were 6 months old, but by then it's too late. "They'll already have their bad habits established," she said.

"We used to do dog show training, then we realized that most people don't want to show dogs, they want good house pets," said Davis. "They want their dogs to not jump up and stay off the counters."

In basic training, the dog learns some of the basics, such as "sit," "stay" "come" and how to walk on a leash. "It's important to get the dog's attention every time you say his name, and he will be 90 percent better behaved than most dogs," said Vesalo. "You can teach a dog to sit and stay when the pizza man comes. You want to set the dog up for success."

Vesalo teaches a fancy move called a "puppy push-up," handy for redirecting the dog's attention when the mailman comes. You make a loud noise, such as by dropping a book on the floor, say the dog's name to get his attention, and then have him sit, go down, sit and go down again - known as the "push-up." Through all this activity, the mailman melts away.

You can also train the pooch to ignore accidental pain in a smooth move called "ouch training." You pull the dog's ear and go "ouch," then give him a treat. You work on this scenario until ultimately, if someone steps on his tail, the dog ignores it and starts drooling. You can even teach dogs to love being held by doing just that, cradling them like babies, said Vesalo.

Working with your dog deepens the bond between owner and animal, a relationship that can become quite profound, even spiritual - just check out your neighborhood library for a wealth of books on the topic. Participating in classes socializes the dog, exposing him to new and different settings and people, including children. He learns to be friendly and a likely return customer of the local dog park.

"If you don't put the time into training, eventually people will get rid of the dog," said Davis. "If you're willing to put in time for training, you'll have a good pet for the life of the animal."

Thirteen people and eight dogs gathered in a circle of chairs in the center of the PetsMart store for a graduation ceremony, the culmination of an eight-week beginner class. It was a feast of giggling, sniffing and wagging as the dogs and their masters trotted up to Vesalo in a display of "pomp and circumstances" to collect their certificates and a toy.

Nobody hurried off at the top of the hour. They lingered to hear Vesalo share stories about how she tricks her own dogs, Jersey, a Great Dane; Spooky, a sheltie mix; and Spanky, a husky-Lab mix; into coming to her every time she calls them by using variable treats - throwing the ball or the stick, giving them a cookie or hollering with delight. They never know what the reward will be.

"They are thinking that if I don't come this time, they might miss the stick," she said. Retrieving the stick is their favorite. ... "I'm passionate about this connection. We're really learning how to love one another."

Meanwhile, Heather and her dog have become practically inseparable; their bond, golden.

"Buddy has become such a caring and loving dog," said her mom.