by John Leonardson

Created on: May 07, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

Early on you need to decide what kind of relationship you want with your dog. Thus, the type of training you choose is important. Do you want a dog to sit, fetch, beg, roll over and other assorted tricks? Do you want a defender of the home? Or do you want a dog for a companion and friend?

Of course, we need to make sure our dog doesn't tear up the house and can handle its basic needs. Beyond that, we need to make some decisions. I have a small 13 pound Maltese/Poodle. Frankly, we love the little guy and consider him part of our family. We decided we didn't need him to do tricks, but we wanted as close a relationship as we could. So I treated him with lots of respect and love. Many people comment on well behaved and calm he is. We take him garage saling with us without a leash and folks are amazed he doesn't run away.

We take him, Oreo, wherever dogs can go - like Home and Office Depot, houses, some offices and walks just about everywhere. I don't use a leash unless some specific place requires it. We walk around the neighborhood and he can run around to check out things and gets more exercise. He never strays far and comes when called. We even walk in darkness, which we both enjoy as a changeup.

How did Oreo end up this way? I started by training with a leash and gradually gave him more freedom. I let go of the leash and made sure he didn't run into the street and came back when called. Now I trust him almost completely. He still has two downfalls - motorcycles and other animals. The roar of a bike gets him chasing it, but lately he's much better at this. With other animals he sometimes ignores me for awhile, but eventually breaks away. He's better now and usually will listen pretty well.

As time goes on, he responds more and more to my voice and seems to understand the situations. As I'm typing this, he's snoozing on the sofa near me - cooling his heels until I feed him breakfast. He's going on five and almost all of his behavior is great. I believe love and patience really paid off!

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