About this time last year our son found a photo of a young Bassett Hound at the local rescue organizations online site. The group was located here in the Houston area. He talked us into having a look see. “It’s right here in Houston, Mom!” Yeah well, it was still an hour and a half away from home. She was a sweetie and climbed up in his lap and got all lovey the moment he sat down on the floor to get acquainted and the rescue folks felt we were a good match for her so we made a donation and brought her home. (We had already filled out the extensive questionaire and had been approved to adopt if the dog liked us and we liked her.)
The vet said she was about five or six months old when we got her. She was found loose by a freeway. They think she was a Christmas puppy and got loose or let go because they didn’t realize what they were getting into. She is our first from a rescue. Our other Bassett that died (of lymphoma) the year before had been bought as a puppy from a reputable breeder.
Whoever had her hadn’t tried to train her or teach her good manners. We started off kennel training and signed her up for her and her boys to take a basic obedience class up at petsmart. Housetraining was tougher than with our first dog. She did figure it out finally. She learned to walk on a leash and sit, stay and lay. We learned to give her a kong toy to play with to distract her while we have dinner. It was tough to get her to stop getting on the furniture, and we’re still working on her not jumping up on the people in her life when she is happy to see us.
She’s thrown us for a couple of loops though…
She likes to sit in a white plastic chair when she is in the yard. She can stand on the chair and peek over the wood fence as we come in the drive and we always get a wonderful Bassett vocal greeting. As we were trying to teach her not to jump up on us as we come in the gate, she seems to have struck a deal with us that if she stays in the chair until we get the door unlocked and open and step in the house, she gets to come inside. It was like she realized that if she gets off the chair she won’t be able to keep herself from jumping and so was staying in the chair. When she’s trying to stay in the chair she looks like she is trying so hard to contain herself.
Just recently she’s come up with a new one…
She’s (or we’re) house trained now. After she figured out the housetraining the boys decided to give her a bell and have her ring the bell if she wanted to go outside for business or play. Her kennel is near the back door and the bell hangs at her shoulder level between the kennel and just an inch or two from the door frame. The boys (with varying degrees of faithfulness) ring the bell for her when she stands there waiting to go out thinking she will get the idea one of these days.
She however apparently has another plan for her bell.
Tonight she rang the bell and went into her kennel to go to bed and turned around and waited for me to shut her door. I looked at her astonished and then looked at my husband and asked him, “Did she just do what I think she did?” “Yep,” he said, “she’s done it a couple of times now. She rings the bell when she wants the door of her kennel closed.”
What I want to know is…
Just who is training who?
