Adventures with Gabe

Sometimes Gabe is smarter than I realized.

Ever since he started learning that he needs to go outside to potty, his method of letting me know has been to go to the door and sit quietly, sometimes looking at me and sometimes looking at the doorknob.  The problem is that the chair I occupy a lot (far too much, these days) faces away from the door toward the TV.  So I don't even realize he's at the door.  What happened for a while was this:  He'd patiently sit at the door, I wouldn't notice him, and when he'd waited as long as he was willing to he'd find a place to "do his business" in the house.  

This hasn't happened for a long time because when I'm sitting in that chair, Gabe has trained me to always know his location.  If I look around and don't see him, I panic, even though he hasn't had an inside accident for a long time.  I'll say "where's Gabe", and Cliff might tell me where he is, or else the dog will hear his name and come running. 

My daughter and the grandson's wife have been telling me, "Get a bell and he'll learn to ring it when he wants out."  I searched online and got some confirmation that this indeed works.  I wondered how on earth he'd even know he was supposed to "ring" it, but they assured me this worked for lots of people.  Once I got the bell and hung it on the doorknob, each time I took him out I'd shake those bells to ring them.  Although most information tells me that dogs sometimes learn this the first day, after a week the only time I heard the bells ring was when I shook them.

Sometimes, though, I would hear a faint scratch on the door and there Gabe would be, wanting out.  The trouble is that when I'm busy in the kitchen I need a louder noise than a scratch.  

Yesterday Gabe happened to want out while I was watching him:  He went to the door, touched his nose to the bells, and sat.  But there wasn't any ringing!  The bells need to be shaken pretty hard, and Gabe hasn't the ability to make them ring!  Who knows how long he's been doing this?  

So.  As much as I really don't want something hanging on my wall two feet above the floor in the hallway, I guess I'll be donating some more money to Amazon for this:

The little girl we babysit isn't here this month (her mom had some surgery), but I have an idea the bell will be ringing often when she comes again.  Actually, she's old enough now to limit her experimentations with things, so that won't be a problem.  I'll tell her to have fun with it for a few minutes, then I'll tell her that's enough.  She'll stop.  She's so grown-up now.

We've bought a shock collar, but haven't done anything with it yet because we want to use it properly, so we're reading everything we can about using one.  Gabe has to learn to come when called in all circumstances or he'll wind up dead in the middle of 224 highway... or maybe injured by some other grouchy dog.  If the shock collar doesn't work, we'll be spending bundles of money on a trainer because, by george, I like my dog and I've said too many unnecessary goodbyes to dogs I loved in the past.  I don't want to do that again.  

Guess what?  Trainers use a shock collar too.

I hope the world is treating you well, dear readers.