| I hate to bother you all again, but I'm getting a little discouraged. Some of you may know that in the past Diesel has made my heart stand still a number of times by 'defending' me from innocent passersby in the street. (As lately as a month and a half ago, he decided that an acquaintance of mine that I stopped to chat with was standing too close to me, and he jumped up and deliberately stopped just short of putting his mouth on her breastbone, and then jumped back down. It was a definite 'Leave- NOW!! gesture, and it was pretty frightening.) Thanks to my current trainer things have gotten much more manageable, but when I walk Diesel I still have a pretty strong residual fear that he will be aggressive with the poor people who venture too close to me. So his innate desire to defend me from innocent people worries me-- and now I have to fear that he would just clam up and not defend me from a serious threat, too?
And a word of explanation as far as my reluctance to change trainers: you have to be very careful about whom you call for help in Italy. An antiquated 'iron fist' mentality prevails with more people than you would imagine. I have heard people from the animal protection services enthusiastically advocate hitting a dog to train it, and there are some nationally respected trainers in my area who resemble lunatics more closely than they do normal human beings. That may make it easier for you to understand why I'm not eager to discard my current non-violent trainer, despite the discrepancies between his defense theories and yours. It's one strike against him, but he's generally impressed me other than that.
On top of everything else that's going on, my husband, without warning, decided to put my mind at ease by testing Diesel's reaction to an attack upon me himself. Last night I was lying on the bed with Diesel at my feet, and all of a sudden my husband ran into the room and towards me with his arm raised, as though he were going to hit me. Diesel unhesitatingly jumped up and intercepted him, grabbing the raised arm hard in his mouth. My husband yelled 'Leave it!,' and pulled away and ran around to the other side of the bed to gain access to me that way, but Diesel was on top of him wherever he went, he wouldn't let him get anywhere near me. He growled and again grabbed his arm and bit down, staring into my husband's eyes-- and Diesel wasn't playing, he was very serious. I had to get off the bed to put a stop to it, or they would have gone on like that forever.
Then today while we were outside working on prey drive with the little stuffed sausage thing (is it called a tug?), my husband started hitting me with the thing on the shoulder- the poor guy is trying hard to prove that Diesel would save me! Diesel jumped up and bit his forearm hard enough to make him yell very loudly (and my husband is a stoic man).
I've told my husband not to stage anymore crazy attack scenarios, and he's promised me that he won't. But what I want to ask you is this: in light of the dicey trainer situation in my area, do you think there is any way I could interpret Diesel's willingness to hurt my husband (whom he loves) in my defense, as well as his general attitude towards strangers who approach me, as an adequate sign that he would be willing to defend me in the street? That is- can I just leave the PP issue where it stands, with my husband's little do-it-yourself tests, and stick with my non-PP trainer? Or do the things I've told you about Diesel's reactions mean nothing?
I won't be offended if nobody answers me because I know that I'm being an enormous pain! But if you do, I promise that I'll leave you alone for as long as I possibly can. ;)  |