Socializing the Funk

Hmm. I am a bit distressed this morning because Robert and I took Garfunkel to his 2nd puppy class last night and he was a loser. But let me first back up a bit to last week's class...

Last week I was petrified to take Garfunkel to puppy training because I just knew he was going to be the rowdiest, most unruly dog there. As Robert and I met a rambunctious little Boxer in the parking lot with her family, I commented that I was relieved Garfunkel wouldn't be the only monster in class. Cut to: me trying to coax Garfunkel out from under a desk where he spent most of the class. Poor thing turned out to be a weenie! He was afraid of the other dogs and the other people... it was all we could do to get him to even venture out into the middle of the floor before he turned tail and ran. Who would have thunk it?! That our gregarious, feisty, headstrong little booger is really a yellow belly? It was a shocker.

Last night Garfunkel fared a little better - he at least got out from under our chair long enough to chase a couple of dogs around. (Robert stood in the middle of the room during the dogs' play time and kept squeaking "Go play! Go on! Go sniff some butts!" I was thisclose to leaving him. Still am.) But during the collar grab/treat exercise (where you're supposed to grab the collar of a dog that does not live in your home and offer him or her a treat), Garfunkel still refused to let anyone touch him. Then, during the pass-the-puppy exercise (where you cradle your dog and then pass him or her to the person next to you), he snarled at the woman we tried to pass him to and was thus ejected from the exercise entirely. :o( Loser!!! I was embarrassed - and I don't think Robert was thrilled, either. We sat with him, ostracized, and the skulked away from class as quickly as possible.

I don't know what happened to the Funk! He was really socialized when we first got him; he'd been fostered in a kennel and was good meeting new dogs and new people. Nary a bark or growl or anything. Then he was quarantined for a month until his Parvo vaccinations were up to snuff and *POOF!* Garfunkel lost his mojo. Now he barks at every person and dog on our walks and is acting out in class. Great. (Robert told me this morning, in fact, that a woman in his office who is married to a vet said that her husband doesn't enforce the Parvo quarantine for his patients. He feels - from personal experience - that so many more dogs are ultimately put down for behavioral problems than Parvo that it's not worth losing that time for socialization. Now he tells me!)

So, now we really need to work on getting him together with new people and new dogs. We're going to foist ourselves off on my sister and brother-in-law and their dog, and I think our friends Emily and Paul are going to allow us to subject their dog, Moochie, to Garfunkel's social ineptitude. Those are the only other dogs we know, though, so we need to start hanging out on random street corners asking for dog dates or something...

And, in a similar vein, here's an amusing story about Robert and his superiority complex. As you know, I leave later than Robert in the mornings so I am the one left to ditch Garfunkel, howling and mewing, on my way to work. Monday morning was a particularly gnarly one - the Funk just did NOT want to be alone! I wrestled with him for a good 20 minutes (making myself late to work, of course, because I didn't wrestle very hard... he looks so sad in the morning!) trying to get him to stay in his pen long enough for me to get out the door. He has now taken to either lying in between me and the door to stop me from leaving or going either limp or stiff when I try to pick him up and put him in his pen, so as to make it as difficult as possible. I managed to get him in his pen 5 or 6 times, but every time I'd start to run for the door, he'd already escaped. When I finally got out the door and to work, I told Robert about my morning adventures. He listened and was supportive, but when I got home that night, he told me of a "different " way I could set-up the pen so as to prevent Garfunkel's escape. When I informed him that I had already tried that configuration and that Garfunkel anticipated me and shoved his face between the cage and the chair so I couldn't ever get it flush with the wall to secure it, he just mumbled something like "Well, I'll try it tomorrow." Fine. So Tuesday I made a point of getting ready early so I could leave at the same time as Robert. I waited outside and let him set up the pen the way he thought would work and when Robert finally made it outside, no sooner had he turned around to walk down to the garage than the dog was scratching at the front door and barking. Robert gave me such a look of incredulity! I asked him "Did you think I was exaggerating yesterday?" And he said "No. I just thought maybe you hadn't set the gate up the right way." REALLY?!! Thanks for the faith, Mr. Man. Needless to say, I skipped in gleeful smugness to the car this morning as the same exact thing happened... Stupid Robert.