Well now that Megan has been home for a week and has in some regards settled back into how life is, my Mistress has sat us all down and said that next week will be a bit training week. She is going to start with our response to the phone. Basically the ‘desired behaviour’ is that my Mistress wants to be able to answer the phone when it rings and be able to talk to people undisturbed. She also wants to make outgoing calls in peace. When there were three of us we had almost got to the point where that could happen but with Megan back we are all on edge so none of us is behaving. I only bark to put them off attacking me, but if I bark the rest won’t stop and wind each other up. Anyway, enough of my problems. Next week we have been told that my Mistress is going to make lots of calls, although I suspect some of them will only be pretending, to desensitise us to the phone. She will start with only one of us in the room and if we bark the can of old money will be shaken and if we don’t we will get a treat. Once she has got through to each of us individually she will increase it to two at a time and work her way up until we are all in the room and behaving. As I write it down the theory sounds very easy, but I just can’t help thinking that the practice might be slightly less convincing. Apparently, once we’ve done it with the phone we will do it with the front door and then other flash points. The irony is that although I can’t really see it working, I would be the first to sign up to the outcome of a more calm relaxed atmosphere – so I guess I’m going to give it my best shot.
Alfie Dog with a little help from Rosemary J Kind alfie@alfiedog.me.uk
Alfie’s Diary – the Book is available at Amazon UK –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00583ZGSA
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