Due to some crime issues in our area, we recently hired a security service to have a guard at our house 7pm-7am each night. The security firm suggested we might also want to hire a dog to patrol with the guard each night and we said "sure". So we are now the proud "borrowers" of a 3-year-old Rottweiler named (not by us) Rambo. I really couldn't make that up if I tried--I'm just not that good!So Rambo lives at our house full-time and has a cage in the back yard where he stays during the day until the guard arrives. The firm told us that they would supply "training" with the dog so that he would get to know us and we would feel comfortable allowing him out of the cage during the day. Since we were out of the country most of the month he started, we finally had a chance to schedule our "training" session last night.
But let me back up. Jeff was still in Malaysia when the guard and dog started working for us, I had already come back to the states. When we both got back to Malaysia, Rambo would bark and growl if he saw me, but would defer to Jeff and back down when Jeff would tell him to quit growling at me. Hmmmm. This went on for the past 2 weeks and I was beginning to believe the dog just really didn't like me and that there was NO way I would be able to take him out of his cage during the day.
Back to last night. The Nepalese trainer shows up looking like.....the dog whisperer...to be honest. He is an older man with black hair and a full white beard. He has on a vest and a wide brimmed outback-looking hat. His eyes are very intense and cloudy looking. I swear he could hypnotize you! So he proceeds to show us how to approach Rambo and the commands to use. He has trained him from a puppy and you can tell that the man truly loves this dog and has a relationship with him. It takes him awhile to get Rambo back into "command shape", because he said the guards don't dominate the dog like they should so the dogs get lazy when asked to respond to the ques. He showed me how to walk him on a leash and illustrated what he would do to a stranger (using one of the guards as an example). Wow, when he said "watch", Rambo went into full-throttle growl-bark, baring the teeth and pulling on that leash. I will be VERY careful using that word with him.
Rambo had a little problem listening to my verbal commands. I think my voice is just not very demanding and deep like the trainer and Jeff, because he responds PERFECTLY to Jeff and defers to him just like the trainer. Of course. I knew the dog would like him more than me:)
I forgot to take a picture of him out of his cage, so this one will just have to do until I get a better one. The trainer left a leash so we plan to take him for a short walk tonight after our regular one-hour walk in the evening. I'll let you know how THAT goes!
