Frankie Raymond Franklyn Green Beans - SDog #3

I guess I'll have to explain his name first. His breeder, the WONDERFUL Lori Dodd, puts colored collars on all her pups. Frankie had a green one on, so she called him Green Beans.

I decided to name Frankie after my WONDERFUL grandfather, who passed away just a few months after Frankie was born. But my grandpa had an interesting history with his name. Everyone called him Frank, but then someone found his birth certificate, and it said his first name was Raymond, middle name Frank. Then another document was found and it said his first name was Robert! Frankly (pun intended), I think my grandpa worked for the CIA. You had to know him, he'd be the last person on earth you'd think worked for the CIA. Therefore, he'd be the perfect spy!

Anyway, Frankie is currently in training to be my third service dog. We got him a little earlier than I had expected. Willie's hip surgery will probably (hopefully!) prolong his working career a few years longer then we had expected. I will probably wind up using both dogs for a while once Frankie is fully trained (separately, of course... I don't want to look like I'm running the Iditarod with a team of dogs at the mall!).

Frankie was certainly a handful for us. He's the first dog we've ever had that, on a daily basis, tried to take the alpha position in the WillaHouseHold. We found that our "normal" training methods did not work on him. As a puppy, he did not respond to "pack" discipline, either from us or the other dogs. He would actually enjoy any physical pack corrections, like scruff of the neck, putting him down on his back and growling... all that. To Frankie, all touching is good, and if mommy is yelling at me, she loves me!

We wound up having to hire two trainers over the course of a year. It was our second trainer who really provided the breakthru we needed. We really needed to turn Rick (hubby) into a better trainer since I had usually been the primary trainer. Rick is now a full-fledged trainer and doing a great job! A few weeks ago, he even gave ME some training tips with Frankie! Imagine that!!

Frankie is doing great now too. We had a scare when we did his 4-month hip check, but his one-year x-ray showed fair-to-good hips. He's started pull training and is dragging bricks up and down our street. He's up to 6 bricks. And, yes, my neighbors are used to me having my dogs pull bricks, tires, and eventually wheelchairs.

Comments

Anonymous said…
What breed is Frankie?

Keep the comments coming!

Raze
1:13 AM
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