Thursday, June 25, 2009

More freedom


We're cautiously letting General have more freedom. Usually when we leave the house, General has to be down in the basement. We've got a nice area fenced off with toys and blankets, water and food, but it is a chore to get him in the basement. He hates the basement and will do anything to avoid getting caught when he knows that's where we want him. We've tried to make it a better place by only feeding him down there, but even the wont of food for my food crazy dog isn't enough of an allure for him to voluntarily go downstairs.

We started to allow him to stay upstairs when we're gone for short periods of time. Twice he's been left alone with full freedom to wander (and possibly chew) and (so far) he's been a good boy. He hasn't torn apart my knitting. He hasn't chewed a shoe. We even (accidentally) left the bathroom door open and he didn't touch the garbage. He can be such a good boy (when he wants to be).

We've also been allowing him the freedom to roam a little. We don't put him on a leash when we're headed for the car. He loves car rides and will ignore anyone or anything if the car door is open and he thinks he gets to go for a car ride.

Finally, I've been allowing him to stay off the leash and wander a bit when I'm down working at the garden. He gets chained up as soon as he takes too long to come back or wanders too far, but usually he's good at staying right in the yard. He did scare me the other day when I called and called for him and he didn't come back. I ran around the block and couldn't find him. I looked in his favorite places and couldn't find him. On the verge of tears, I went back to the garden. Someone started to whistle at me and when I turned, a construction worker was holding my dog. General went over to talk to them and decided that they were much more interesting then our yard, so he just ignored me. I ran over to get him and needless to say, he was chained to the fence the rest of the afternoon. Silly dog. He has his freedoms, but he'll soon learn that they can be limited.

1 comment:

Clayton & Kayley Anderson said...

My dog is eight years old and I have always been terrified of him getting run over, so he never gets to go anywhere unless he's attached to the leash. The other day, he was running really slow, so I took the leash off and ran ahead of him and he just followed me home. I might be able to be a little more lenient now, I'm finally learning if I don't chase him, he's more likely to come. Cute post, he's an adorable dog! (Sorry about the long comment.) : )