Nice try, Rodney ! He is a Cuzball addict - I swear. He'll drop everything for the squealing, nerve busting sound of a squeaky cuz ball. For those of you not familiar with the object of interest: It's ball with little devil horns and legs on it. Quite suitable for dachshunds with the mindset of a Rodmonster. (a.k.a. Rodney, Monsi, Monster, Monstermeister...........etc.) As stated in a previous post, Monster's best defense is offense. He'll attack before he thinks and one of these days it will get him in distress again as it did on numerous occasions before.
Today is a wonderful spring day and no, we were not the only ones at Great Falls Park this morning. I had the marvellous idea of taking the cuz ball on our outing as a supporting tool for Monster behavior modification. So here I am again, equipped to survive a day in the wild. Left pocket bulging with the cuz ball, and right pocket bulging with dog treats we went on our merry way. I am so blessed that the girls are neither people nor dog aggressive and so I can mostly fully concentrate on making a fool out of myself in trying to calm the raging Monsterman.
And aaaaaaaaaah - the first "enemy" in form of a big, fat Labrador retriever rolls our way. A lot of people really do like that breed, but for those of us who have reactive Rover on the leash, they are a nightmare ! Wiggle-woggleing their way toward us and mouth with open with bouncing tongue, ears and tail, a Labrador usually doesn't understand the concept of "not friendly". My best offense is mostly letting my canine ambassador Tessa off leash to calm the situation. While Tessa is busy putting a barrier between the oncoming dog and the upset Monster, I find time to either dart in the ditch or try to calm down those 20 pounds of rage and fury bouncing up and down besides me. Mind you - there is nobody home in Monsterland once he declared war on his opposition ! As much as he likes treats, they become second nature at that moment and no filet mignon in this world is going to change his mind. (For those of you thinking, that maybe I should be having tastier morsels in my coat pocket.)
New strategy: The beloved cuz ball, which cast its magic spell on Monster a long time ago and which in his book needs to be hunted down and killed much more than any filet mignon or deer, bunny or skunk ever will. If not distracted, a mellow shy little squeak will make his head fly around and come running. Oh well - what can I say. The cuz ball lost out to the big, fat Labrador...........
Gotta rethink my strategy ! :))
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