Ginger
by: Tyler wisdom
Having a pet at home is a lot of responsibility takes time, patience and commitment. I learned that leon when my family got a beagle. when we took Ginger my dog home I thought I would be spending my days playing with her and my nights sleeping with her in my bed. First of all , my dad said ‘’no’’ and soon I discovered that having a dog was more than just having fun with her.
The responsibility of having a dog takes time away from the things you like to do. For example, playing Xbox, board games, legos, or riding my bike. Then times like on Saturday and sunday mornings when I would like to watch cartons, but instead I need to put her outside, so I miss a little of the cartons. This leads to me and my brother, Spencer, fighting because neither one of us want to miss the carton. So, I will say, ‘’ Spencer can you take her out?’’ and then Spencer, the master of excuses, will say ‘’Oh, I have to go to the bathroom’’ and will run off. If this happens, I will let her out but then my parents make sure he lets her back in.
Some of the other responsibilities of that comes with having a dog are making sure it gets fed every day and that there is plenty of water always in her bowl. Ginger also needs to have plenty of exercise, so I love to play ball with in the house, but then her favorite thing to do is to go for a sniff, I mean a walk. No, you don’t understand, when you own a beagle, they are really good hunting dogs, so she likes to sniff absolutely everything. So, our walks tend to take to smell. When we outside, for some reason she loves to roll in the grass. When it is time for a bath, I have to go upstairs, put water in the tub and put her in. This will make her shake a little because she does not like to take a bath, so I will tell her, ‘‘Ginger it is okay, we are just getting you cleaned up.’’ This also is very funny when I am done, because as soon as I take her out, my bother and dad help to get her covered with towels so won’t shake and get water all over the bathroom walls. But, when we are done drying her off, watch out because she will go crazy. She shakes like 3 or 4 times before she gets of the bathroom and then runs like the wind all through the house. My brother and my sister and I try to keep up with her but we can’t, she is just way to fast.
Another duty I have is to listen for when she needs to go out during the day. We have trained her to go to the sliding glass door and bark, so she will bark just one time. However, if you don’t get to her soon she will start to bark 3 or 4 times and howl because she is getting tired of waiting for someone. Then when she is finished and is ready to come back in, she will do the same thing. Then we have to be quick because we don’t want her to bark a lot and bother the neighbors. Once she is finished going, another duty is to clean up the bombs in the backyard so no one steps in them. Usually, I have to get the shovel and Spencer will hold the trash bag, so we have to work together on this. I tell Spencer, ‘’ Okay Spencer open the bag so I can dump it in.’’
Then once a mouth it is my job to trim Ginger’s nails. My parents tried doing this when we first got her but she would never hold still as my dad held her and my mom would try to cut. So one d ay, my dad said, ‘‘Tyler, you are so good with animals, why don’t you try it.’’ Then I said, sure’’ well, all i had to do is to tell Ginger to sit and she will hold up her paw and I will trim her nails all by my self. When i am fished i tell her, ‘‘Good girl Ginger’’ and give her a treat. As a result of all these things, if you stop to thank about it, it takes a lot of patience to take care of a dog.
Having a dog also take paience to train them poperly so they will do want you want. For example, the first thing to do is to house break them when you first get them home. This process can take a couple of weeks and can make you lose your patience a lot. Puppies are not able to control their bladder and bowl movements so, you have to have a lot of patience and stick to letting them out a lot so they learn where they must go to be let out. This is important so you help the routine of going to the batheroom outside. So, the key here is to train them to have a “ potty spot.” To do this I would take Ginger by the coller, walk her to the sliding glass door and say, “ Ginger this i where to go out, it is time to go potty”, then I would walk her outside and hook her up. There will be a lot of accidents until they learn, so you must be prepared for that. But, you must be consistent and patient in the training and also discipline them so they know what they did is wrong if they go in the house.
Another technique is to get them to leash trained when you go out, this will lead to training the dog the basic commands. For example, I tell Ginger, “sit”, “come Ginger”, “stay’’ and the most important one of all is to when I tell her “ no”. Puppies are very active and love to chew, so she had to be told ‘’No’’, a lot because she would be putting things in her mouth she shouldn’t. When we caught her chewing something she shouldn’t, we would have to say, “No Ginger, go to your crate’‘ and she would with her tail between her legs. Training can be very difficult, but the benefits from it are worth while.
Another way we trained Ginger is to sit while we are eating supper because we don’t want her under the table licking the floor or begging for food. So during supper, my dad will have to say to Ginger, ‘‘ Ginger go sit’‘ and she dose right away. I have also trained her to shake in order to get a treat. I will take her to the laundry room and then say, ‘‘Ginger sit, now shake’‘ and she will do it. Then she gets a treat for a reward.
Then next thing I am now working on is to train her to do a figure 8 through my legs. This is not working as well as the other things we have trained her to do, so I get frustrated with it. So, then I go to my mom and dad and say, ‘‘What am I doing wrong?’‘, and they say, ‘‘Nothing Tyler, you are doing a great job, Just don’t give up.’‘ When this happens, I have to just walk away and take a break and try again later.
Thesis but if you train your dog sometime later it pays off And you will know how fun a dog is when it has ben trained.
