Chapter Fifty: Forcing the Retreat

Zhang Congwen said, “Not entirely. Just now, my main purpose was to show you how to quickly calm it down when it gets overly excited around strangers. From what I’ve observed, it hasn’t had proper socialization training, so often it lacks boundaries when expressing happiness to strangers. What we need to do now is guide it to establish the right way to interact with unfamiliar people. In essence, it’s a matter of manners.”

“In addition, you should play with it more, or increase the time you take it for walks,” Zhang Congwen continued. “In short, you need to use various methods to burn off its excess energy and keep it exhausted. By combining both approaches, its attitude toward strangers will gradually improve.”

While Zhang Congwen and Yu Qin were speaking, the French Bulldog somehow wandered into the dining room and began gnawing on the leg of a wooden chair.

Seeing this, Yu Qin tried to push the bulldog aside with her hand. However, Zhang Congwen noticed Yu Qin wasn’t very strong; though she managed to move the bulldog’s hindquarters, its front half was still clinging to the chair leg, biting away.

Without saying a word, Zhang Congwen stepped forward, gently tapped the bulldog’s ribs with his index finger, and slid his foot between its four legs under its belly, giving a light push. The bulldog looked up, saw it was Zhang Congwen, and immediately stopped biting, scampering off to avoid him.

“Big Ears is afraid of you,” Yu Qin laughed.

Zhang Congwen nodded. “Dogs have a sense of hierarchy. When handling a dog, you must be assertive; otherwise, it won’t obey your commands.”

“When we try to stop it, it bites our hands—how should we deal with that?” Yu Qin asked.

Zhang Congwen smiled. “Just don’t use your hands.”

“Huh?” Yu Qin was momentarily confused.

It was like asking a doctor what to do if you get appendicitis, and the doctor replies, “Remove your appendix first and you’ll never get it.” It sounded logical, but the answer was somewhat absurd.

Luckily, Zhang Congwen didn’t leave Yu Qin puzzled for long. He had her stand in the center of the living room, then slipped one foot between Yu Qin’s feet and gently pushed her, taking over her spot.

“This method is actually more effective than pushing with your hand,” he said.

He then had Yu Qin imitate him and demonstrate the move herself.

Yu Qin learned quickly and grasped the technique at once. She slid her feet between Zhang Congwen’s and gave a gentle push. Without using much strength, she forced Zhang Congwen to step aside.

“See the difference between using your hand and your foot?” Zhang Congwen asked.

Yu Qin nodded. At first, she hadn’t thought there was much difference, assuming Zhang Congwen was simply stronger. But after trying it herself, she realized that driving someone away with your foot really didn’t require much force to get them to move.

Though part of it was because Zhang Congwen wasn’t resisting her, Yu Qin could still feel the significant difference.

Zhang Congwen said, “It’s the same with Big Ears. This method easily gets him to leave his spot.”

With that, Zhang Congwen demonstrated again, this time on the French Bulldog instead of Yu Qin.

To Yu Qin’s surprise, it was even easier with the bulldog. Zhang Congwen simply slipped his foot in front of the dog, and the bulldog obediently moved aside.

Initially, Yu Qin thought it was because Big Ears was afraid of Zhang Congwen. But when she tried herself, she found she could achieve the same result.

She thought she was doing it right, but Zhang Congwen corrected her, “You need to move together with him, not follow after he’s moved.”

Yu Qin nodded and practiced carefully according to Zhang Congwen’s instructions.

At first, the French Bulldog didn’t understand what Yu Qin was trying to do, dodging several times before stopping with a confused look. It studied its owner’s expression, trying to figure out what she wanted. Soon, it seemed to understand, and sat obediently in place.

“Now you can praise him,” Zhang Congwen said.

Seeing her dog behave so well, Yu Qin didn’t hold back her praise. Happily, she said to the bulldog, “Big Ears, you’re amazing, so well-behaved.”

Zhang Congwen continued, “Now, walk around the living room at random.”

Yu Qin nodded and walked around as he instructed. In the past, if she wandered around the living room like this, the bulldog would have quickly started nipping at her heels. But this time, after circling the living room five or six times, the bulldog didn’t chase her at all, instead following her quietly, behaving perfectly.

Yu Qin was both delighted and surprised by this. As she watched her adorable dog, she couldn’t help but squat down and pet its head.

The bulldog thoroughly enjoyed being petted, and soon began wagging its tail at Yu Qin.

Just as Yu Qin was savoring this harmonious moment with her dog, Zhang Congwen began the next stage of training.

“Here we go,” Zhang Congwen suddenly said.

As if someone were arriving outside, he quickly ran to the door.

The bulldog followed at once, but halfway there, Zhang Congwen abruptly stopped and turned to look at the dog. Seeing Zhang Congwen halt, the bulldog obediently stopped as well, waiting behind him.

“Good dog,” Zhang Congwen praised.

He then said to Yu Qin, “Now you can pretend, like I did, that someone’s coming and go open the door. If Big Ears follows you, use the method you just learned to stop him.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Qin immediately sprang into action. Initially she was just cooperating with Zhang Congwen’s training, but after seeing her dog’s transformation, she was far more motivated.

“Hello, you’re here!” Yu Qin said to the door, jogging over.

Once again, the bulldog fell for it, thinking someone new was arriving, and followed along. This time, without needing a reminder, Yu Qin blocked the bulldog’s path using Zhang Congwen’s method, steadily encroaching on its space and forcing it to retreat.

“Woof!”

Finally, the bulldog barked to show its displeasure but still obediently moved aside.

Seeing such progress, Zhang Congwen said, “Besides these pressure-based control exercises, you also need to encourage it to think about how to solve problems on its own. That way it’ll get along better with people in the future, and its obedience will improve.”

“Let it think for itself?” Yu Qin was taken aback.

Zhang Congwen smiled. “Don’t underestimate him—he’s actually quite smart, just lacking proper guidance. So our next step is to start training his obedience and problem-solving skills.”