This is a bizarre page out of Hurley's past, which we know very little about.
We know that his original owner was renting and his landlord wouldn't allow him to keep this dog.
We know he was abandoned to the Humane Society in South Dakota.
He spent a little bit of time with a foster family in Omaha, Nebraska.
His foster family spent a good amount of time identifying his likes, dislikes, and amount of training.
His evaluation report stated that he had been taught "Sit", but needed work on all his basic commands.
Now having trained a few dogs in the past I can tell you a 6 month puppy that doesn't know "Down" or "Come" is well on his way to becoming a poorly trained dog. And a poorly trained 140 pound dog is a recipe for disaster. Now I realize that working with the attention span of a puppy and getting them to obey 100% of the time is not realistic, however, puppies at 2-4 months of age can be taught "Sit", "Down", and "Come". Fortunately, Newfoundlands are known to be very intelligent and eager to please, so I am certain that he will be able to pick up his basic commands quickly as long as I continue to invest time in training him.
Please note that I mentioned that training takes time. It is becoming an increasing trend among dog owners to not invest the necessary time required for training their dogs. Whether through frustration (with themselves or the dog), maybe from lack of patience or poor method implementation, there are more dogs who are becoming poorly trained. But I digress....
After we had Hurley for about a week, my wife turned to me and asked me "Did you know Hurley can shake?" My initial thought being "Well of course he can, it is a natural response dogs have to try and remove water from their coats. Okay, Wait, that doesn't make sense, she is referring to something else. Well I am having him get used to me take each of his paws so I make sure they are clean and healthy, I wonder if he is picking up on that." I was wrong again.
Hurley was sitting at the entrance to our bathroom. My wife leaned toward him and said "Shake" and sure enough he raised his paw to her. I was shocked and then immediately appalled. "Very Cool" I uttered. Because honestly who doesn't want a giant dog who can "Shake" on command. But I refer you to my previous digression. That means his previous owner took the time to teach his dog how to "Shake", but not "Come". This is totally asinine. He was teaching his dog tricks to show off, but no basic obedience commands. Hurley, I am so glad you are with us now, you have no idea how bad things were going to get for you. In time you will learn a bunch of different commands but first of all and most importantly, you will be an obedient and well-behaved dog.
My promise to you.
- Corey
here here
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