Return of Sam the Ninja Dog

Well, dear readers, a comment on my last post about Sam was that I should "give up and face it, that my dog is as mad as me". All I can say is, well you may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but you certainly can teach them to listen to you once in a while! And yes, my dog maybe mad, but now our walks are the wonderfully enjoyable things that we always wanted them to be.

"What miracle is this?!" I hear you cry. Well, it is the simple miracle of the Spray Commander (TM). This little DARLING invention is a collar that we put on Sam when we go walkies, it has a remote control with 3 buttons; 1 - for when he's good, it emits a beep, 2 - for when he's bad, it emits a short burst of air with a Citronella smell and 3 - for when he's REALLY bad and doesn't listen to you or notice you pressing no 2 in the first place, it emits a LOOONG burst of air and Citronella.

The first day we took Sam out with this collar we were apprehensive, to say the least. At the end of the day, normally shouting ourselves hoarse did nothing to stop him or bring him back and our concern was that this wouldn't stop him either. But within the first minute our concerns were answered by seeing a runner in the park. Picture the scene:

Sam: Sniff sniff, sniff... la di da... hold on. What's that over there?!! On the path?! A threat to my family?! A RUNNER?! NO! I must protect them! I must run and bark!!! [spray] What the BEEEEEEEEP was that?!! That's a weird smell, where did it come from?! Oh well, now, what was I doing? Sniff sniff sniff...

It is truly remarkable and, now the weather is how it should be (for now at least!), it is a delight to walk our beloved pooch in all sorts of situations (EVEN the park, with PEOPLE and everything!) and not constantly be checking if there is someone Sam will be offended by and run at. He even walked straight past the postman the other day, now that WAS an achievement.

So, here's to Sam the Ninja Dog Who Got Trained - good luck to everyone else who has a wild, but lovable dog. Seriously, go and try Spray Commander (TM) (you guys at SC can pay me later!).