Got Holes In Your Yard?

Koehler method of training:

"... dog digs a hole in your yard? fill the hole with water and submerge the dog's head in that water filled hole and keep it there till he feels like he is drowning."

Years and years ago when this book first came out, it was widely circulated amongst the dog training clubs. Someone had brought the book to a training class and this was one of the passages that they had copied and handed out to the members of the club. I took a copy home and never thought anything about it.

At that time I had a bitch by the name of Shady Sadie. She earned the name and it fit like a glove. She had a very bad habit of digging out of her run and starting a fight between two male dogs, any two would do. Her partner in crime was Hero and he always defended her no matter how much in the wrong she was.

I was gone one day and Jeffry came home to find that Sadie had once again dug out, started another fight and was sitting at the back door just as pleased as could be with herself. Well, Jeffry remembered that I had mentioned the article on digging dogs so promptly read it, thought it sounded like the ticket and went out armed with a shovel and a hose.

He enlarged the hole that Sadie had dug under the fence and filled it with water. Then he got Sadie and took her to the hole. Now Sadie may have been a bitch but delicate she never was. She was 25 at the shoulder, 80 lb. and athletic, fit and well muscled.

I came home to find a wet, bedraggled and muddy Sadie sitting on the deck (not in the pen). A pile of muddy, wet and bedraggled clothes sitting in front of the washer and a husband in the shower. He said nothing.

The neighbor ratted them both out. He said that was the best thing that he had ever witnessed, better the a wrestling match, even the girls in the mud ones. According to him, it ended in a draw, but in between was Jeffry in, Sadie out and Sadie in, Jeffry out. There was mud flying everywhere. He said it went on for about 10 minutes and was the most entertaining 10 minutes he had spent in a long time. The next time I intended to put on a show like that I should let him know so he could round up a couple of his buddies and they would make book on the match.

So I ask Jeffry about it. He wasn't quite as descriptive of the event as neighbor John was but it did come out. He did admit to the deed. I asked him if he thought it worked and he said that it most certainly did. Jeffry has never dug another hole since then.