Susan has been very cooperative about things but both of my mom's dogs have been wigglers and brushing objectors. Mom is nutso about having her dogs corrected, so I can't really do anything about either one of them. But they do both behave for me though not for her. I read somewhere that dogs prefer the person in the house with the most self confidence, so I try to be very gentle and self confident with Mom's dogs -- like I KNOW what's best for them and if they disagree it's just because they're silly. Just that attitude seems to help. And then I'm just gently persisent. Mom gets almost hysterical if you force one of her dogs to do anything (wonder what she imagines happens at the groomer?) so I can't persisent for very long at a time, so I have to do it frequently. But the older one now loves to be brushed and will tolerate just about anything from some people-- which is very good because she's a 140 lb lab -- and the younger one, the Yorkie, is coming along. The lab used to be so bad Mom was thinking of getting rid of her, but truthfully, now she's practically a dream dog except on the rare occasions when she gets her back up about something. Fortunately, my father is firmer about a few things and has a very forceful presence. Nevertheless, inside he's probably a bigger marshmallow over the dogs than my mother and they know it. |