Hardy was a Bolter!

I brought our new friend home on September 10, 2001. It was an easy date to remember. It was the day before the Twin Towers got sabotaged. I remember driving home with the newest member of the family on my lap, rolling down the window, and the little Schnauzer taking his first sniff of freedom. Once we got home, we spent half of the day mulling around in the backyard waiting for the kids to get done with school. By the time they got home, he had been bathed and groomed.

Our dog didn’t yet have a name, and we were all thinking of names and trying to decide what name would be fitting. Back then, the new addition was considered my son’s dog, so his thoughts carried a lot of weight, in terms of the naming. That night after watching an episode of Big Brother, my son suggested one of the character’s names: Hardy. Everyone in the family liked the name, and it stuck. Big Brother was getting very close to its season finale, and the character, Hardy, was in the running to win. To this day, I don’t know if Hardy won. The tragedy in New York that happened the next day took over our television programming.

While the whole country watched the details of the 9-11 assault unfold on the television, my children and I went shopping for a collar, leash, dog food, a book about Miniature Schnauzers, and the all important identification tag. We chose a gold heart as the ID tag, since we were all in LOVE with Hardy. That ID tag would serve to come in handy! We quickly discovered that Hardy was a bolter: if anyone opened the front door, car door, or gate, off Hardy would run as fast as his legs would carry him.

Hardy was also dreadful to take for a walk. He tugged to the point of choking himself, gagging the whole time. He lurched out in either direction, depending on whatever smelled interesting to him, and he barked at dogs that were coming the other way. I remember thinking… Oh my! How in the heck are we going to deal with him?

We quickly learned that Hardy was SMART! I enrolled my son and Hardy in a training class at the local pet store. After eight weeks of training, Hardy had learned sit, stay, come, leave-it, off, settle, and most importantly, walk obediently on a leash. The training class did almost everything we needed it to do. There was only one problem: Hardy was still a bolter. The trainer told us one important concept before Hardy’s graduation - don’t chase after a running dog. They just think it’s time to play chase.

So we stopped chasing. I made sure I had dog treats near the door, so we could entice Hardy home. It helped a little, but it didn’t stop the bolting. I came to believe that our dog would end up in the shelter again. By now, I felt like I had learned why he was taken to the shelter in the first place. Since there was no Dog Whisperer at the time, I began to watch Animal Planet’s show called, Good Dog U. One day I finally saw the show that was meant for Hardy’s problem behavior, and I learned how to extinguish the bolting behavior. I bought a 20-foot leash and practiced opening the door, and letting Hardy run out – with the leash attached. I held treats in my hand and called him back. We practiced everyday and soon our little dog was an angel.