A bit of background

Hi - Meet my Bloodhound - name of Earl.

He is a 21 month old, 54 kilo boofer who gets attention everywhere he goes. The dream dog of my husband, the product of a number of phone calls and the willingness of a wonderful breeder to entrust us with one of her precious puppies. Earl came to us at 12 weeks old, on a plane from NSW - 2 hours late due to missing his connecting flight. He was a bundle of wrinkly skin and drool and was the same size as our 18 month old kelpie - by the time we got him home he had stopped sulking and decided that maybe this would all be OK after all. The kids loved him and he grew like a weed, eating 3 meals a day and still wondering if perhaps there might just be a liitle more to come.

Everyone said that Bloodhounds were unique dogs and we had asked the breeder for a 'smoochy' dog - she definitely gave us that :) - he liked nothing more than to lie at your feet and have his tummy scratched - the kids quickly called it "Earl's ooze move"

We had a bit of drama when he was a year old - we had the garden landscaped and had a truckload of riverstones laid in the garden beds - very pretty - obviously Earl thought so too as within a month he was at the vets - on the Sunday of a long weekend - having a riverstone removed from his intestines.

So began Earl's love affair with riverstones - we laid mulch over them - he dug around the trees to find them - we put bricks down around the trees - he nosed them aside and found more riverstones............and  a week ago - he was back at the vets having another riverstone removed from his intestines - same shape - same size as the last one.

He had also begun to show some possesiveness when his food was being prepared and OH and I made the decision to call in the "Superman of dogs" (Thanks cassie for the description of him) - Mark Singer.

So - Mark came and saw us today and spent 2 hours with us - assessing Earl's behaviour and giving us advice about what we needed to do.....

The verdict was - he is being over assertive and pushing into our personal space - effectively 'claiming' us and when Mark pushed him away with a simple 'bite' to his neck with his hand Earl was quite taken aback  - and then when OH and I did the same when he tried to push himself onto us I believe that even in his 'not the smartest tool in the shed' brain he was realising things had changed.

We then went through the routine of feeding which Mark had asked to see - as this was where Earl had shown the most aggression - growling and jumping at OH to make him back away. Well - I mixed up his food and put it on the kitchen floor - at Mark's suggestion (we have a gate at the kitchen door so Earl couldn't get in). Earl stood at the gate - Mark stood next to him - Earl was not happy - he growled - Mark took him by the collar and said "NO" very firmly. Well that wasn't the usual response a growl got so Earl tried the next step - twisting to try and get away and growling more loudly - this only led to Mark taking him away from the gate and Earl obviously going "Oh sh!t - this doesn't work on him" and giving in - lying on the floor and submitting to Mark.
Mark then took the food to the laundry and stood over it - claiming it and having Earl keep his distance from it until he submitted (lay down, relaxed and turned away from the food) and then invited him to eat.

By this time we were starting to get an idea of Earl's issues and what we needed to do so we now have the important things to remember stuck on the loungeroom wall and tonight - when we fed Earl we followed Mark's instructions.

OH made his food while I stayed in the lounge with a hold on Earl's leash. When Earl went to the gate with the same focus he had before I called him "Earl - come" and pulled him to me with the leash - patting him when he was sitting near me. This happened a few times and then OH walked to the laundry with the food bowl - put it down and stood next to it - claiming it.

Earl's Bloodhound brain wasn't too happy about this - I mean the scary guy at lunchtime obviously knew what he was doing and wasn't going to take any sh!t from him but - this was his owners - and THAT was his food!  He rapidly realised that even though we were NOT the big scary guy from lunchtime he was NOT getting close to that bowl and that food until he submitted where we wanted him to - no matter how many times he tried or how long it took.

After a few minutes of lying down and a pat for being submissive he finally rolled over and gave up the fight (this time) and was invited to eat.

So - 6 am tomorrow we will go through the whole process again - it needs 2 of us to carry it out effectively - and I am sure that this time it will go smoother (Sorry Earl - I didn't think the long leash would wrap around your legs - will use the shorter one tomorrow)

Earl is currently comatose in front of the heater and we are looking to tomorrow to continue the journey we began today with Mark...................................

..............come along for the ride?