Amy Lu's View

“Wow, he’s an adolescent.”

Those were some of the first words out of Coach Carla’s mouth when we met her for our initial dog owner conference after StanLee’s first day of Boot Camp.

Yes, we’ve enrolled (enlisted?) StanLee B. in “boot camp” at our local Canine Coach. No, he’s not going to be shipped out to fight a war of canine cuteness, but he is going to go to training every week day for a month (we need to drop him off  in the morning by 9 and pick him up by 6).

Yes, Coach Carla (the trainer dedicated to working with StanLee) assured us that he is adorable and charming and that all the staff love him, but “training him is going to be a challenge I’m looking forward to.”

Hearing that StanLee is “challenging” actually made us feel better about our (expensive) choice to send him to Boot Camp. No, we’re not just lazy dog owners who suck at training (well, I am) but StanLee has some significant impulse control issues. He’s not aggressive (exactly), but he wants things, or more specifically, to play with “things” (other dogs, cats, emus on tv) NOW and when he can’t, he gets really frustrated and loses his puppy mind.

The basic training we (mostly Chad) did with StanLee B helped, and he’s definitely calmed down as he’s gotten older, but he’s still a lot to handle. He’s an adorable little ball of energy who loves too much, and we just can’t exercise or train that away by ourselves (as some well meaning but judgmental folks have suggested).

StanLee propensity to love too much is especially problematic for us because our cats are terrified of him and still sequestered in the basement. (The one time he actually did come in contact with one of our cats–Pepper–she scratched/bit his ear and he cried like, well, a little puppy, but neither one of them seems to remember that).

We’re trying not to have too high of expectations for Boot Camp. We would LOVE to have StanLee learn not to terrorize the cats, but we’ll also be really happy if by the time of Boot Camp graduation we can take StanLee out around other dogs (yes, primarily so we can take him out drinking with us).

If we had known about Boot Camp when we had Oscar, we may have signed him up for it, as he also was never that well behaved in public. (Olive, with her fear aggression, was probably never going to be a terribly social dog. Ironically, we think she really DID want to kill the cats, but she was calm about it, so they were too oblivious to recognize it and we were always afraid the cats would commit suicide-by-dog).

And yes, we know Coach Carla and the Canine Coach crew can’t create miracles by themselves. We have to do our homework, too, and work on training StanLee at home. Boot Camp also includes twice weekly meetings for us (or at least one of us) with Coach Carla and at-home visits after the conclusion of Boot Camp.

The logistics of Boot Camp are both a burden and freeing. Even though it only takes 4 minutes to actually get to Canine Coach from our house, sometimes making sure we are there by 9 and picking him up by 6 adds stress to the day that we just don’t need. It can be particularly stressful when StanLee thinks that putting on this harness is a game of chase, although “yay” to him for demonstrating why he needs Boot Camp and affirming our choice.  And no, I haven’t dropped him off yet but I’m totally prepared to do it in my pajamas or workout clothes if I need to.

But those sweet hours while he is at Boot Camp–yes, I miss him, but I also love not feeling responsible for him and being easily able to do simple things like take out the recycling, not to mention spending time with the cats. (And if you’re thinking I’m totally overreacting to the stress of having a dog, thankfully I was self-aware enough not to have children). Boot Camp time isn’t as awesome as Puppy Daycare time, as we don’t have to pick him up from daycare until 7:00 and we can usually go to Happy Hour before, AND there is a puppy cam at daycare…but hopefully he’ll be able to go back to Puppy Daycare as a more polite canine citizen.

Whatever the outcome of Boot Camp is (and I definitely intend to blog about it), I’m pretty sure StanLee is loving it. Yes, he’s mostly exhausted by the time he comes home, because thinking and learning and paying attention and following rules is HARD (I know I feel the same way). But I’m positive he loves all the attention from Coach Carla and the rest of the staff (again, he’s mostly just like me, #WillWorkForAttention).

*”Blog Dog”–this is my blog, and StanLee is my dog, and it rhymes! Inspired by Luke Burbank, host of the podcast “Too Beautiful Too Live” and his “Pod Dog” Rudy.