Nico's Story: Stand for Examination?

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Stand for Examination?

The "stand for examination" command is one of those obedience class exercises that seems to have little purpose unless you intend to go to trial with your dog, or show him or her in the breed ring. In the breed ring handlers use treats to bait the dog so he will stand up tall and gorgeous while the judge walks around and judges his overall structure. Then the judge runs her hands over the dog to see if the competitor feels sound. In the obedience ring, the judge does similar things as I recall, to see if the dog will stand still for it.

But in any "normal," non-testing context what exactly is it worth that your dog will reliably stand and stay on request? Well, grooming I suppose is one of those times when it would be nice to have a dog stand still, not that any obedience trained dogs I ever worked on, including my own, could ever be counted on to stand still without hands on support when I hit a knot. Veterinary examination is another moment when it could help, though most dogs stand still enough if you hold on to them for that. Nonetheless, it always helps to have a word a dog understands that means get on your feet, no tap dance please.

However there is one context where the "stand" word is absolutely essential. I wrote last time about how Nico is seriously troubled by snowshoes. Every winter we start all over again in terms of settling him down around them. Well, young Benny is of course completely the opposite. He loves snow shoes! They are more fun than big fuzzy bedroom slippers. You can grab the wood and chew: this is especially fun when the wearer is mid stride. You can stand on the rawhide deck. This is the best if you do it right when the wearer is about to pick up their foot! Best of all, when the wearer falls down you lie on the shoes. Snowshoes are big enough that a young malamute can get a lot of body weight on that surface.

Being the wearer of the snowshoe when the young Malamute has decided to lie down on the shoe I can tell you that when this happens it is impossible to stand up. Benny thinks this is hilarious. Further to his fun, he has found he is long enough in the body to lick my face while still keeping most of his body weight on at least one if not both of the snowshoes. Meanwhile of course, Nico is trying to get away. After all, what does a pup know? Snowshoes are scary.

I am no gymnast. At least, I've never been one before. But every time a young Malamute comes into my life I do find I can bend and twist and achieve leverage in ways I never thought physically possible. Come to think of it, they probably aren't possible, but necessity has a way of overriding the limitations of Newtonian physics.

Then, I had a Eureka moment! One day as I was lying in the snow watching the distance increase between my hyper-extended right arm (Nico's leash) and my twisted and bent left arm (Benny's leash), while pinioned by my snowshoes under a giggling Benny, one word came to mind: STAND. Yes! Stand for Examination! We'd only just starting working on this one, Benny and me. Its a tough thing for a pup because heretofore if you're not moving, its always "sit" or "down." If you're on your feet, its "Heel," or "Come." Stopping means sitting. Anyway, lying there on the ground enjoying that Spa Malamute double treat, the snowbath with face wash, I tried it.

Benny, Benny? Benny: WATCH ME. No Benny, I don't want you to lick my face, just pay attention. Now "Stand." No hand signal of course. I had a leash in each hand and Nico was on the end of one of them, already standing, watching all of this with no small concern. I'll make a long story not too much longer by telling you that eventually Benny did stand. Of course, he stood on the snowshoes quite immovably for a while. This is because at this stage all of our go out signals involve me moving my feet. So Benny stood quite calmly, solidly still, and it was time for the Spa Malamute flexibility test. That involves rising up off the ground, going straight up without moving your feet. But evenutally we got on our way.

You can be sure that "stand" has now become a much more important word to us, and you can be sure I am also working on "go out" as a total verbal signal. In fact Benny's got "stand" going on pretty consistently now, he just hasn't quite got understand the next part, "Stand, but not on my snowshoes!"

One of the most delightful things about bringing Benny into our family is the way he is making Nico feel a lot more relaxed about all kinds of things, including snowshoes. I've had the snowshoes out for about two or three weeks now, and even Nico is getting better about staying staying still while I put the shoes on. But Nico still gets scared if I fall down. His first reaction then is to pull away. The other day though, Benny decided to stop dead in his tracks right in front of me. His big feet were of course squarely placed on the deck on my snowshoe. So I fell, I fell hard. My knee hit a rock the ones that grow in the snow, just out of sight.

I did not curse. But I did say something and I said it loud. It might have been, "BENNY You are ADORABLE".

Benny thinks he's adorable too, so he licked my face. But even before he could get started, there was Nico right by Benny's side. He'd come, despite his fear of the snowshoes, closer to the snowshoes than ever before, on his own volition. His goal was to get Benny out of there before the shoes got him. Really. There is no other explanation. Benny did as he always does when Nico seems to be upset about something that makes no sense to him. He laid down and said "Lets make snow-dog-angels".

All in all, Benny's insistence on intimate relations with my snowshoes seems to help reassure Nico, in a way that I have not been able to over the years, that there's nothing to fear from the big shoes, at least not on my watch. There are other ways in which Nico has shown that Benny's steadiness settles him. Benny is the younger dog and he looks to Nico to take the lead. But his confidence that the world is essentially a benevolent place has never been shaken, and hopefully never will be. They are a pretty good team: should Benny's easy view of the world ever prove wrong, he's got Nico looking out for him. Meanwhile Nico jumps less at shadows, saving his nerves for when it counts, and mine!