ME AND MY ARROW
By Janene
"Wherever we go,
Everyone knows -
It's me and my Arrow"
-Harry Nilsson
I was playing a CD in May 2001, when that song came on. I suddenly had goose bumps all over me, and started to cry with anticipation - I knew my next dog would be called Arrow, and that she would be coming soon.
In August 2001, she found me. A nameless, red speckle cattle cross bitch, about a year old, was at a pound, destined to be euthanased. She had been there for about a month, and previous to that, at a vet practise for a few weeks. She had been abandoned. No one wanted her. She was not wearing a collar, nor was she microchipped. I named her "Arrow", purchased her from the pound and with microchip in place, took her straight to my local vet for a thorough check up. The poor little thing vomited constantly the entire one and a half-hour journey. Probably stress combined with motion sickness. The car smelt awful! She was declared a healthy, fit young dog. She got the works: vaccinated, wormed, heartworm tested, flea washed and spayed. The vet did notice that she had no nails at all, and on closer inspection, came to the conclusion that they had all been pulled out. He also found some strange, circular scars on her rump, and said they looked like cigarette burns. The poor little creature. I burst into tears with horror and pity on hearing that news. The next day she finally came home, and was content to lay in her new crate, complete with lambs-wool mattress.
After recovery, she thought that my grassy back garden was heaven! She was content to spend the next three days sitting in the grass under a shady tree.
And so her training began. She seemed to like her name, and responded to it almost immediately. It very soon became apparent that this little dog had never been taught anything, not come or sit or how to walk on a lead. She had figured out for herself that constantly barking and jumping up on everyone and everything got her lots of attention, and the lead was for dragging people around with, and giving them rotator cuff injuries. She was not house trained, either. Oh boy, this was going to be FUN!
By the end of her first week, using positive reinforcement methods and my trusty clicker, she could sit very nicely, and thought that COME! was the best thing in the world, as she always got treats and a cuddle. Now by using Sit, I was able to curb her constant jumping up, as she knew if she sat, she got treats and cuddles, which is what she wanted more than anything else in the world! She also started to learn some canine manners from my seven and a half-year-old blue boy, Brok. She was quite a rude little girl, but quickly came to respect canine calming signals and behaviour.
Thank goodness for the head training halter! It made walking her on the lead much easier, and along with clicker training for attention, she soon got the hang of things. By now I had also started teaching her down, wait and stay. Her recalls were quite nice, too! By Christmas, she was an integral part of our 'family', and I could not imagine my life without her!
In January 2002, I started her Jumping training, and she really enjoyed this new game. In February, it was time to start Agility training, and she took to it as if she had been doing it all her life! She really loved the A-frame most! And so in April, she competed in her first Elementary Agility Competition. Although we achieved two Elimination's, by our third run we were getting the hang of each other, and managed to finish with just 3 faults (15 penalties). WOW! What a great achievement for her - it was more than I expected! In May we competed again, and came away with two more Elimination's, but gee what fun we had!
I had also started teaching her stand, and decided it was about time we attended formal obedience classes. And so we joined NSDTC, and she was assessed and went straight into Class 3! What a clever girl! What I did not realise though, she was used to working with only me, and could not cope being in a class situation - too many distractions with the other dogs to play with! So here we are now, working on attention and concentration with all the normal distractions of a training class.
Thank you to everyone who has offered support and advice with this very special little dog - my Arrow.
