First World Refugee

  • Life
    • Fun
    • Shopping
    • Errands
    • Mother Necessity
    • Celebrations
  • Staycations
  • Adventures
  • Simple Things
  • Why & How
    • Our Inspirations
    • Making it happen
  • Editorials
    • Dooley Bear Tails
    • Artist Renditions
    • Reviews
  • Home
  • About Us
  • About Belize
  • About Ambergris Caye
  • Other Great Links
    • San Pedero Scoop
    • Belize Social Network
    • Taco Girl
    • San Pedro Sun







Home Dooley Bear goes to Cop School

Dooley Bear goes to Cop School

Dooley Bear at cop schoool

All of our planning and preparations were going along great – with the exception of one really big, brown hairy problem – what do we do with Dooley Bear?

Dooley Bear was special from the beginning – he was one of those “free” dogs. Very sweet but he was crazy. His nickname at doggie daycare was “Wild Man”. Dooley Bear loved to charge at people and run through their legs to knock them over. He also had this knack for frightening children by licking their faces incessantly and putting their small arms into his mouth – just to nibble on them.

He was a great dog when he was just around us, but oh boy. Anytime friends would come over he would lose his mind. We always had this vision of us and our dog: we’d take him to bars and restaurants and sit on the patios. Take him to parks to play. Nope, not with our Dooley Bear. He just couldn’t handle being around people and meeting new people – he literally got so excited anytime he would meet new people (or he would see friends) he would lose his mind and turn into a terrible dog. “Dooley Bear the Terrible.” When Dooley Bear was a small puppy these behaviors were  “acceptable” – but as he grew and grew into a freakishly tall, 105 pound Chocolate Labrador – something had to be done to fix him.

Dooley Bear working hard at school

Dooley Bear working hard at school

Dooley Bear was about 5 years old when we made the decision to move to Belize. But what do we do with the dog? We both liked him enough to want to keep him, but there was no way we could move this crazy dog into a condo. So what to do?

We tried the standard dog training class – for 6 weeks we’d spend 1 hour with a trainer every Satruday. Then during the week we had homework. Well, you can imagine how this went. We’d get our homework assignments – “practice X 3 times a day” – yeah right. Who had time or energy after work?

So needless to say, this training didn’t work on the Dooley Bear. Training fail.

One of the NASCAR cars where Dooley Bear went to school

One of the NASCAR cars where Dooley Bear went to school

Now what? It was either find a trainer who could fix him or leave him with friends and not move him to Belize. After much searching we saw a doggie boot camp – this sounded great. We drop off our broken dog and then 2 1/2 weeks later we pick up our new and improved dog. We found a trainer in North Carolina who sounded great – Dogs by Andy. Andy’s resume was amazing: trains search and rescue dogs, trains police dogs, trains service and therapy dogs – over 30 years of experience. We met with Andy and Amanda and were so impressed. If anyone can fix our Dooley Bear, they can. When I talked with Andy about Dooley Bear having some separation anxiety he said, “that dog needs to man up and stop being such a baby”. That’s exactly the kind of trainer we needed! (Plus he also trains a lot of dogs of NASCAR drivers too – which is cool).

A week later we loaded up Dooley Bear into the car to drop him off for his boot camp stay. As we were driving up to Dooley’s school we saw all kinds of old, broken down NASCAR cars sitting around and were like….ummmm…are we in the right spot? Did we make a wrong turn? We actually called them because we thought we were lost. But they were like nope, you’re in the right place – we can see you. So we pulled in, said goodbye to Dooley Bear and wished the trainers luck. (By the way, there was a strange looking elevated bathtub thing we saw and asked about it – they said it’s the bathtub where they wash the dogs after their trainings – we’re wondering how they got Dooley Bear up in there for his bath?)

Bathtub at Dooley Bear's school

Bathtub at Dooley Bear’s school

2 weeks seemed like a long time to be without Dooley Bear so we dropped him off when we had a trip already planned down to Belize. So we were down in Belize on vacation while Dooley Bear was working and learning. Do you think that was fair? The trainers sent us pictures and updates of how his training was going.

I graduated! I get to move to Bellies with my people!!!

On the pickup day we had to go and spend a couple of hours there so we could be trained on how to work with the new and improved Dooley Bear. When we saw Dooley Bear for the first time he didn’t even recognize us – but as soon as he got close enough to smell us he got his waggle back and was so happy to see us. Pretty sure he was ready to go home!

Happy Dooley after his bath

Happy Dooley after his bath

The boot camp was a complete success. They worked magic on our Dooley Bear and fixed him. He got to move to Belize with us and now we can take him everywhere with us and hasn’t knocked anyone down – or made a child cry – since his training.

At least not yet……..

 

 

Nov 29, 2014Ronnie and Lisa

Comments

Jet's BarThe Tamale Guy
You Might Also Like
 
Dooley Bear and Our Great Biking Dream
 
Students at Holy Cross School in San Pedro, Belize get a visit from Dooley Bear!
Ronnie and Lisa
3 years ago Making it happenDooley Bear, Training158
WOOF! Dooley Bear Tails

Dooley Bear's Editorials
Click here for Dooley Bear's Tails




Most Viewed
Stand Up Paddleboard Cart
3,123 views
Getting A Belize Driver’s License – aka The Belize DMV Experiment
2,871 views
So, you want to get your Captain’s License???
2,338 views
Our Cenote Biking Adventure – in Tulum!
2,227 views
Our Journey to Jonesville, Roatan in search of the Hole in the Wall Bar and Grill
1,227 views
House Hunters International
1,187 views
San Pedro 2001- Fried Chicken, The Hand Ferry and a Jaguar
1,163 views
The “Big Boat Launch” Day!
1,154 views
The Beginning of Selling (almost) Everything We Owned
1,116 views
It’s Not a Vacation – It’s Life in a Vacation Spot
1,023 views
Words Of Wisdom

Life is not a spectator sport.
Get up. Participate.
If there's an opportunity - Take it.
If there's a maraca - Shake it!

Some Random Tales
Adopt-A-Bear San Pedro! Shopping in the city, passing out toys, and lots of smiles!
How we put a 22 foot long octopus on a 20 foot long boat for the 2017 San Pedro Holiday Boat Parade
Our 2017 Italian Adventure, Act 5 : Rome – The Colosseum, Vatican, Crypts, Catacombs and a Broken Shoe

First World Refugee

Categories
  • Adventures (55)
  • Artist Renditions (1)
  • Celebrations (11)
  • Dooley Bear Tails (22)
  • Errands (7)
  • Fun (36)
  • Life (76)
  • Making it happen (4)
  • Mother Necessity (6)
  • News from Abroad (1)
  • Our Favorites (2)
  • Our Inspirations (4)
  • Reviews (1)
  • Shopping (16)
  • Simple Things (10)
  • Skinny Dippy (1)
  • Staycations (12)
  • Uncategorized (1)
Archives
  • March 2018 (2)
  • February 2018 (1)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • December 2017 (5)
  • November 2017 (5)
  • October 2017 (2)
  • September 2017 (5)
  • August 2017 (3)
  • July 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (3)
  • May 2017 (6)
  • March 2017 (4)
  • February 2017 (3)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • December 2016 (4)
  • November 2016 (1)
  • October 2016 (1)
  • September 2016 (3)
  • August 2016 (4)
  • July 2016 (6)
  • May 2016 (1)
  • April 2016 (4)
  • March 2016 (2)
  • February 2016 (3)
  • January 2016 (1)
  • December 2015 (3)
  • November 2015 (3)
  • October 2015 (7)
  • September 2015 (4)
  • August 2015 (6)
  • July 2015 (4)
  • June 2015 (5)
  • May 2015 (7)
  • April 2015 (5)
  • March 2015 (6)
  • February 2015 (11)
  • January 2015 (12)
  • December 2014 (12)
  • November 2014 (21)
Email-Subscription

Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest news and event postings.

© First World Refugee