Trained By The Milkman
Wait…who trained whom?
Yes, in my corner of the world, milk delivery is still offered.
Wherever Chloe is in the house on Friday morning, it doesn’t matter. She hears the scrape of the cooler on the front porch. Her senses alert her to danger. The lid of the cooler creaks. That’s all it takes. She takes off like a crazy kangaroo out of hell. She crosses the living room in 2 bounds, launches herself onto the back of the couch in 2 jumps (a place she is not supposed to be, I might add here) and tries desperately to get through the glass and at the man who is smiling at her and putting new glass bottles of milk into our cooler which is set out and waiting for him.
The milkman, oblivious to Chloe’s extremely serious threat to his life, the life of his truck, and the life of whatever else of his she can get her teeth on, boops the window in front of her nose. He thinks she is cute.
Chloe could rip that finger off. Every week, I wonder how long the glass in the window will hold. Chloe stays on the back of the couch, chuffing and continuing to bark threatening barks under her breath, until the milkman’s truck drives away.
Then her focus, and barking, turns to me.
You see, my milkman is a dog guy. How do I know he is a dog guy? Because he leaves a dog biscuit on top of the milk cooler every week. It didn’t take Chloe long to figure out that with milk and stranger-danger-guy comes a lovely treat for her. All she has to do is bark her fool head off and threaten him while he is in her line of sight.
Once her threatening is finished, she has determined I am now under full obligation to get the milk into the house as quickly as possible. She earned that protection reward. Treat praise should be immediate. She doesn’t understand why I trip over her as she stands directly in front of the door.
Parting thoughts
Reviewing this article, I see the training progression. The milkman trained Chloe and Chloe trained me. Huh. Well, at least the milk isn’t forgotten.
barry robinson got to the subject of the milkman before I did. Have you read his article? If not, take a look and enjoy a laugh!
