Faking it

I have an e collar for my dog and she obeys me when it is on, not so much when it is off.  She has this tendency to scream whenever her father gets up, moves, comes downstairs, sit down.  I don't know if it is in excitement, or nervous or what.  But the screams are piercing and the only way to shut her up is to correct her with the e-collar.

When she is corrected she gives this pitiful yelp like I am really really hurting her, and I try hard not to correct her too often since she is a very very sensitive girl.  It breaks my heart when I hear this little yelp of pain, and I think I am the cruelest mom in the world.  And then when I call her over to me after I correct her she is just so full of love and kisses, she is the most forgiving dog in the world.

Yesterday I put the e-collar on for the first time in a while because she tore her pads and she hadn't been feeling well the last couple of days.  She did her screaming bit, and I corrected her and she yelped.  The correction was a  bit high so I gave her some loves, and she of course forgave me.  We had a quiet night, she screamed only a little when her dad came down and I gave her another small correction and she quieted right down.  She really is an amazing dog, now if only I could get her to stop screaming without the e-collar.

But wait!!!  When I got up this morning I took off the e-collar and lo and behold I had forgotten to turn it on.  I had been snookered.  She played me.  How long has she been playing me?  I know that I do a verbal correction, than a e-collar correction, so she knows it is coming, was it a true play, or is it Pavlovian?  Hell do I ever need to turn the e-collar on again?    The mind of a dog is an interesting thing.