FRO-SUB

Barking.  I have talked about it before – but it really is an issue in this house – and my human wonders if other dog people, PON owners in particular, experience the same thing.  Our main barker is Frodo. Frodo barks when my human gets up.  He barks when she goes in the bathroom to get dressed. He barks to tell my human to hurry up and take us out.  And then, even after his walk, he barks.  My human discovered that the other day.  The routine is to take Frodo and me for our walk.  Then Paxton goes for his walk.  So Frodo and I went out and did our thing and returned home.  As my human was walking up our peaceful country road with Pax, she heard a strange sound in the distance.  She was quite far from the house, but she heard SOMETHING.  Was it a loon?  Some other bird?  What WAS it?  It was a strange sound.  Coyote?  They are not usually out in the day time.  And then she recognized that yip-yip-yap sound.  Frodo.  She FLEW down the road, dragging poor Pax.  Of course as soon as she was within 20 feet of the front door, the barking stopped.  When she threw open the front door, all was silent.  He’s no fool.  He wasn’t going to be caught IN the act.

Even when my human tells Frodo to be quiet – like while she is preparing our meals, he STILL has to have at LEAST one more bark.

Paxton USED to be a quiet, easy-going kind of dog.  He would certainly bark if someone arrived – or if he heard something, but he didn’t bark just for the sake of barking.  But now, he has been trained by Frodo.  Sometimes, he just looks at my human and barks.  Usually if she has JUST sat down to relax for a minute.  Pax does the woof.  Woof.  Woof.  So my human gets up, takes him out, and he doesn’t even NEED to go out.  He is a successful graduate of FRO-SUB - the Frodo School of Unnecessary Barking.

I’m still a pretty quiet guy.  ALTHOUGH, when my human comes home and she lets us out for a pee – I bark like crazy at Frodo and Paxton.  Like I haven’t just been with them for the past 3 hours.  My bark is more like a rally cry to get up and out for a run.  It has a purpose.  Sort of.

So any of you humans who have a quiet dog out there– and you would like him to be a bit more “outgoing” – send him or her to FRO-SUB for a week.  Guaranteed - it will no longer be a problem.  Or your money back.

©  Linda Wozniak