"FOUR FEET"

I have done mostly what men do,
And pushed it out of my mind;
But I can't forget, if I wanted to,
Four-Feet trotting behind.

Day after day, the whole day through--
Wherever my road inclined--
Four-Feet said, 'I am coming with you!'
And trotted along behind.

Now I must go by some other round--
Which I shall never find--
Some where that does not carry the sound
Of Four-Feet trotting behind.

--- Rudyard Kipling ---

Meet Four Feet.
He is a super sweet, and smart Sheltie who was named for the above Rudyard Kipling poem. Currently he has one more private session with me and several more group AKC CGC classes to complete.
Four Feet is one of the lucky dogs who gets to go to work with his human. Like many Shelties he barks just a tad too much. I have a trainer friend who says that all Shelties hail from the "Isle of Yap".

That is just not true, but it is funny!
Four Feets barking is not that bad, but as you can see from his posh work space, no barking would be best for all.

Some of the things that we have used successfully with Four Feet include:

-Teaching him to bark on cue
-use a Calming Cap in the car (sometimes)
-target training
-desensitize him to other dogs and noises
-give him alternative behaviors to do besides barking
-lots and lots of attention work
-downs
-stop a chain events before it begins
-increase use of Gentle Leader head collar
-stricter management!

Many people find comfort in the above poem as Four Feet's human did after the passing of her last Sheltie.

As a matter of fact I came across the poem yesterday on one of my favorite blogs when I read that one of the Three Woofs and Woo had passed. (snif sniff) A commenter had added the Four Feet poem in the comment section, and I knew right then and there that Four Feet would grace my blog today in memory of Briggs the red Border Collie.