I've been meaning to brag about Seth for a while, but tonight I had to. Seth by far, is not the world's best behaved dog. He jumps on people, he sometimes gets so excited he tinkles [only if he really, really needs to pee], he barks at you even if you don't say the word for it, he puts his paws up on the counters at work, his recall is maybe 90%, he usually doesn't acknowledge you when you're telling him to quit sniffing something.
However in the 9mos I have had him he can:
Sit, Lay Down, Stay, Heel, Wait, shake hands, roll over, play dead[and he's totally dramatic about it!], bark when you say 'what?'. So he has learned some stuff, he's totally out of control and a big doofus, but he's learning.
Anyway tonight he totally made me proud! We were going for our usual walk and I have him on a retractable leash. Usually if people are coming or other dogs I make him wait and heel accordingly, especially if the person passes right next to us. There is a woman who owns a Malamute and like... 4 years ago I ran into with my other dog LiLo. LiLo wasn't even LOOKING at her dog and she's like "OMG can you go on the other side of the road! Please can you move!" I moved off because she was freaking out because her dog is totally out of control [she maybe outweighs him by 50lbs]. Okay whatever. Well, we ran into her tonight! She was talking on her cell phone. Heaven only knows why you would talk on your cell phone and walk your dog if you can't control your dog, but alas she was. Well she stops. Mind you I wanted to walk the way she was coming from, but instead because I didn't want her to flip out I turned the corner. Well we get around the block and there she is, talking on her phone still! Then she's like "Oh, Oh I have to move because there's a dog and I was trying to..." the dog flips out, barking, trying to pull her around as she is trying to cross the street. Seth of course is like WTF so I tell him "ah-ah" which is like the lead up to "leave it or die" then told him to "leave it" and he totally went on his merry way. He did get slightly jacked up, like excited by the energy but didn't even look back at the barking, flailing dog and his stupid owner who was flipping out.
I am so proud of him. It was really hard, but he listened! If it had been LiLo she wouldn't have even batted an eye, but Seth is still just a goofy kid so I expected him to get more excited. I just told him "Good boy!!!!!!" real loud.
I'm just so glad he's so good, however it's a bummer that my dogs are good on walks because I have no excuse not to walk them then. Seth may never be a Therapy dog but at least he's a good walking buddy.