Bad doggie

When Shadow is bad, our most powerful punishment is "Go lie down!"* Immediately her head droops, her ears sag, and her tail drops between her legs. Often she'll peek up at me and try a few slow wags of her tail, to see if I'll budge. I did that too as a kid: "I didn't mean it, Mom, do I still have to go to my room?" But no way - that didn't work on my mom, and it doesn't work on me. "Go lie down!" I say again, and point to the open area between the living room and dining room.

Shadow usually hangs her head even further and slowly gets moving. She's a sneaky pup, though, and if I don't enforce it she'll end up curled up somewhere else - in the bathroom, or in my office. If I see her deviating from the quickest route to the living room, all I have to say is "Hey!" and she corrects herself. She knows where she's headed, and she doesn't like it. The worst thing in the world for her is to be in the middle of the room and to be invisible to us. If she tries to catch my eye, I do like the books say and turn my head away. Then she sighs and flops her head down on her paws again.

Her banishment usually doesn't last long - only a few minutes. As soon as I feel badly enough for her, or figure she's gotten the message for the moment, I say "Okay," and instantly she grovels up to me and puts her head on my foot, or rolls over and shows her belly. She wants to be loved, and Matt and I both try to show her after her punishment is over that we do love her very much, even if she's less than perfect at times.

Filed under: pets

* "Go lie down" is, of course, a different command from "lie down." When told to "lie down" she drops almost instantly with her head up and tries to see where we're hiding the treat. She's a smart cookie, that one!