I’d have to correct him and put him back in position. Repetition was the key. Mealtime was the hard part because to correct Amos I had to keep him close. I put him in a down stay and we began eating. When Amos got up I scolded, “No, down, stay!” Amos looked at me like a little kid in time-out. He could only stay for a minute, but was doing well. I thought the constant corrections were going to drive Rusty batty. He thought I’d give up in fear and desperation but I knew an even, firm, constant hand was all Amos needed. By Tuesday he was laying under the table for the whole meal. His reward was just like Shadow’s, a bit of food after a short stay. Amos gobbled the bite and I praised him. “Good boy! What a good stay! Good dog!”
Amos gave me a happy grin and planted his paws on my shoulders knocking me over backwards. I should have just gotten up and put him in a sit again but his action triggered something inside of me and I rolled away huddling in fear. Amos was happy. He lunged at me asking to play.
“Rusty! Help!”
Rusty ran in from the other room and pulled Amos off me. I bolted to the end of the kitchen and stood collecting my thoughts and feelings.
“Babe,” he said in exasperation, “you don’t have to do this. You’re pushing yourself too hard.”
“No, I just reacted badly. It was actually a breakthrough and he was happy because I told him he did a good job. I just need to be prepared when he does that again. Now it’s time to teach him not to jump up. He should be happy when he does a good job but he has to learn to control his enthusiasm.”
“You don’t have to do this,” he repeated. “This is for your good. This isn’t a project to make Amos a reformed dog. When this ceases to be of benefit to you we call Kelly.”
“Well, I obviously need more work,” I replied.
If I knew how hard this was going to be I’d have called Kelly sooner. Every afternoon I took Amos out for a walk. We practiced heeling so he would walk on a leash under control. He was doing very well with the training collar on. I even considered leading him through some of the agility obstacles, but Amos soon put a halt to that idea. I was walking him in the hills behind the house when a rabbit darted out of the brush and bolted away. Amos took off after it, and my hundred and fifteen pounds didn’t slow him down much. He had four feet to pull with. I ran after him pulling back with all my might.
“Heel! Amos, heel!” I commanded as he dragged me along. I planted my feet to give him a good solid correction with the leash, but the rabbit darted under a prickly pear cactus and Amos leapt through it. Oh hell! We hit the cactus and went through it with terrifying quickness. Amos yiped loudly and skidded to a halt. He began pacing, lifting his legs and shying away from the fiery stinging needles lodged in his legs and chest. Every time he moved the spines rubbed and stung. I felt his pain because I was full of spines too and wasn’t quite sure what to do. We couldn’t walk back home in this condition and Rusty wouldn’t be home from work for hours. I couldn’t pull out the spines with my fingers. It was going to require pliers. I pulled my way down the leash, closer to Amos.
“Amos, boy, DOWN, lay DOWN.”
Although it was a painful position, at least he wouldn’t be moving around as much. After pinning Amos down I began petting him, talking to him gently but firmly, trying to calm him. We needed help. Rusty was in town and Kelly was in the mountains, and both men were probably at work. This situation required a man’s help though. I couldn’t think of any woman I knew who would pull cactus spines out of me with a pair of pliers. I opted for Kelly. He’d have better luck controlling Amos. I was glad I had my cell phone on me and hoped Kelly had his too.
“Hey Cassidy, how’s the dog sitting going?” he asked when he answered.
“Kelly, I need help. Are you busy?”
He stopped what he was doing. “What kind of help?”
“Amos and I are full of cactus spines. I need pliers quick.”
“Where are you?”
“In the hills behind my house.”
“How will I find you?”
“Head south west from the barn. We left a pretty good trail.”
“Where’s Rusty?”
“At work. He doesn’t know. I thought you could handle Amos better. If you’re busy then I’ll just try for the house but this hurts like crazy.”
“No, stay put.”
“Bring two pairs,” I added quickly before he hung up.
I pinned poor Amos down for nearly an hour before Kelly found us. He saw all the thorns poking out of my jeans and grimaced.
“Why didn’t you just let go?”
“It happened too fast and I wasn’t going to lose your dog.”
“Cassidy…”
“Give me a pair.”
He handed me a pair of pliers and I found a spine. I grabbed it and pulled. Amos jumped and yipped. I pinned him down, found another spine, grabbed and yanked. Amos struggled.
“I’m sorry boy! We have to do it. It’s okay, hush, hush. It’s okay. Down, down. Stay. Amos stay. Good boy, good stay.”
Grab, yank. Grasp, pull. Kelly and I worked over the dog while he wriggled, squirmed and whined. I lay on top of him, pinning him to the ground and talking into his ear as we searched for more cactus needles, giving him only the simple commands that he understood over and over again. Down, stay, good.
“What a good boy. No, no, stay down.”
It got harder and harder to find thorns until finally after rubbing our hands over him we couldn’t feel any more. He whined but didn’t jerk as he had before when we hit something sharp. We brushed all the spines into a pile and released the dog. He paced a bit, whining, then sat and started licking his leg.
“Okay, my turn,” I said. I grabbed a spine and yanked. Oh man, this was going to hurt. I buckled down and set my determination to maximum.
“Cassidy… I can’t. I can’t hurt you like that.”
“Okay, then take Amos back to the house. I’ll do it.”
“No, let me take you to a doctor.”
“They’ll just do the same thing I’m doing now. I can do it without having to figure out how to get to town in this condition. Just let me get it over with. Take Amos to the house.”
“I can’t leave you like this.”
“Then sit down and make yourself comfortable. This might take a while.”
I never, ever want to go through something like that ever again. I thought it would never end. Every pull brought a ripping, pulling feeling and a stab of pain. I thought Amos was lucky because he hadn’t been wearing
