Trainer gives dog new leash on life

By PHILIP GAILEY
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
With an unseemly election behind us and the holiday season just beginning, I thought this would be a good time for a progress report on Bailey, the young golden retriever we adopted last March. After being dragged through months of gutter politics, it's worth remembering that dogs embody the qualities so sorely lacking in our politicians _ selflessness, honesty, loyalty, good will and concern for others. A dog story is never wasted space in the newspaper.

Bailey has overcome a lot since he came to live with us. He spent the first eight months of his life confined to a cage _ excuse me, kennel _ for 12 hours or more a day because his owner, who cared enough to give him up, was a traveling salesman. Bailey has hip dysplasia, and the long hours of confinement only made it worse. His hips had atrophied from the lack of exercise and he wobbled slightly when I took him on his first walk.

He had another problem: an immediate need for basic obedience training. He was undisciplined to the point that taking a walk around the block was an unpleasant journey for both of us, with me screaming commands he didn't understand and him straining on the leash to chase a lizard or greet a total stranger. Fortunately, we decided to do something we had never done before with a dog _ we enrolled him in a basic home obedience training course. And what a difference that has made.

After six weeks of home training, Bailey received a certificate of achievement from the All American Dog Training Academy in a little ceremony at the house presided over by his trainer, Joe Delvecchio, a retired Army dog trainer who came to our rescue. I couldn't have been prouder if Bailey had just received a diploma from Harvard or Yale.

Sgt. Joe, as I called him, drilled Pvt. Bailey once a week, somehow getting the dog to do amazing things, like walk without straining on the leash, sit on command, stay put on command, lie down on command and, my favorite, go to a small rug that had been designated as his "place" and stay there until a release command is given. We like to show off when guests arrive and see Bailey take his place on the rug on the command of "place." Sometimes, however, Bailey puts us in our place by ignoring the command and has to be escorted to the rug.

Bailey took an instant liking to Sgt. Joe, and I think he would have tried to jump over the house if his trainer had given the command. It's obvious Sgt. Joe likes dogs as much as they like him. He proudly displays photos of his own two dogs and talks about their latest antics around the house while he is away training other people's dogs. He says the key to training dogs is training their owners, which makes sense. After all, obedience training is about repetition, which means in between Sgt. Joe's visits the owners have to keep drilling their dogs.

Unfortunately, there was nothing Sgt. Joe could do for Bailey's hip problem but show sensitivity to it in putting him through some of the training exercises. The vet has told us to expect it to get worse with age, but for now I'm happy to report that Bailey is a bundle of puppy energy in constant motion. Through exercise, a special diet (his morning snack is fresh fruit) and glucosamine, he has developed strong muscles in his hips and is enjoying an active life.

He thinks nothing of bolting up the stairs to the second floor, and we had to put a wire fence around a flowerbed in the back yard to keep Bailey from leaping over a 2-foot concrete wall to wallow in the impatiens. He is swimming now, although he still has to be coaxed into the pool. Just say the words "car ride" and he goes into a fandango of delight. He jumps into the air and chases his tail in circles. He still needs a boost to get in the back seat of the car, but he bails out like a paratrooper, without any assistance.

When I first wrote about Bailey coming into our home, some of you asked that I give you a progress report at some point. I have now done that, and it is nearly all good news. He is healthier, happier and better disciplined. He still knows no strangers or any bounds to his energy and curiosity. And by the way, I have mastered the art of reading the newspaper with one hand while playing tug-of-rope with Bailey with the other.

(Philip Gailey is editor of editorials for the St. Petersburg Times. E-mail gailey(at)sptimes.com.)