I had written rather comically about the various dramas encountered with the Saminator. It has been however a bit trying at times to tame a dog with a rather hyper streak. In response to this, and with the holiday trip approaching, the decision was made that we would have to do something with Sammy. Our response? We decided to utilize the services of “M House.” I don’t think I have mentioned this place before, but basically we had checked it out once and thought it a bit odd. Why? We went there with Sammy and found the main space of this facility littered with Golden/Labrador retrievers just lazily hanging out while mellow classical tunes echoed around the facility. It was almost as if they were drugged. No hyper dogs playing around, just all of them laying about just checking things out. Sammy of course was the exact opposite and was trying to get them up & playing.

We later watched as the instructors walked about speaking to the various dogs who immediately reacted to what they were being told. I thought there was an undertone of intimidation. I just wasn’t too sure what was going on. We left after speaking to one of the instructors who seemed nice enough, but there was just something about the place that we wrote off and just forgot about. Running up to this vacation and finding out that we have a little one on the way, we decided to give them a shot. Something had to be done to calm Sammy down and get her to start listening. So 2 days before our trip for the holidays we decided to put here in the M House.

The drop off was pretty uneventful with a similar experience as last time, the only difference is we were escorted up to the loft area where a sofa and chair were waiting for us. Sammy did pretty well getting up the stairs and sitting down despite having to make it past all of the other dogs laying about. As the Mrs. went about explaining to the interviewer what things we were having problems with, Sammy wasn’t really sure what was going on. On a couple of occasions one golden came up the stairs and around the corner, hesitantly wanting to see what Sammy was all about. But after a quick command from the interviewer the dog about-faced and headed back down the stairs. Very interesting. Shortly after the interview, the actual instructor came up to speak with us and wanted to simply understand why Sammy was being so quiet. We could only say that it was because the other dogs were paying her no attention. Again, Interesting. So we got to the end as I stood and handed the leash over to the instructor. The look on Sammy’s face was simply that of confusion. We walked out. That was a little over a week ago.

Even though we have been on the road since then, I often wonder how she is doing and what she will be like when we get back. I know that I thought the schools was sort of a place of severe discipline (it had to be if the dogs where that controllable) but after speaking to the instructor we found that basically it would be one instructor who would take Sammy as his/her own for the duration of her stay. She would live & travel with the instructor all of the time. I guess that is a good thing. Sort of immersion training. That reduced my thoughts of some huge warehouse someplace with kennels where they stored the dogs and took them out for training (tough love style) and walks. Not the case apparently. The only thing left is that we will have to do our part and make sure that we don’t undo whatever it is that they are able to do with her. I will suck it up though and say that I do miss her.