Noel and I finished our
eight-week basic obedience class last Saturday.
I am proud to report that we both passed! I have never been such a diligent student of
dog care, and I feel as if I have let all of my past dogs down for not being a
more involved parent. The class served
to bond us together, gives us things to work on at home, and we have both
learned a lot.
I suspect that I learned more
than Noel, however. I suspect that I
should have taken basic obedience training many, many years ago….with or
without a dog.
I have been learning a lot
about dog care in the past few months.
In addition to obedience classes, I have been doing a lot of online
research about various training issues, watching (with great attention) Cesar
Millan’s television show “The Dog Whisperer,” and reading books about the
proper care and training of our little corgi cocktail.
When Noel strains at her
leash, our instructor taught me to just turn and go a different direction. If she begins pulling against the leash
again, turn and go another way (I must look like a drunken sailor walking our
road). Eventually she will get into “heel”
position because I am walking unpredictably.
Before we go outside for a walk I give Noel the “sit” command, then tell
her to “wait,” then exit the house and give her permission to come outside with
an “okay” command. We are practicing the
“come” command repeatedly, largely because if she gets off leash while playing
with the neighbor dog, she refuses to come to me. Each time we practice the “stay” command I
extend the time so that she will learn patience and look to me as, what Cesar
Millan calls, “the pack leader.”
Oh yeah. I should probably mention that I took
something called an Enneagram test and scored a .7% for assertiveness. That’s right, folks. I couldn’t even crack into the whole numbers
for assertiveness. I scored seven-tenths of a percent. I’m surprised the website didn’t offer me a
consolation prize for being the least assertive human being to ever take the
Enneagram test. Wow.
I need to muster up every
ounce of my .7% assertiveness to learn how to be my dog’s pack leader.
Fortunately, Noel is a very
sweet, very eager-to-please dog. But
even so, I have found that if I let up on my training consistency, or if I
allow her to drag me along icy roads while she strains at her leash, she
quickly forgets who is (supposed to be) in charge. One evening, though totally exhausted, I
decided I had better take Noel out for one last visit to the latrine. It was raining, windy, and all I wanted to do
was go to my soft, warm bed. We went
through the “sit, wait” routine, but when I opened the door she immediately
trotted outside. Despite my fatigue, we
went back inside and went through the whole ritual again. The classes and endless articles emphasize that
consistency is key. If the dog is
allowed to believe he is in charge, he will walk all over his owner. A dog straining at the leash is under the
impression that she is in charge. The
same is true for dogs that are allowed to enter the house in front of their humans
or eat before their humans do. So dog
owners would do well to establish boundaries consistently, because Cesar Millan
says that dogs are more at ease when they know that their humans are in
charge.
This week I was thinking
about how careful I am to toe the line with my dog, but not with my fellow
humans. I caught one of my students interrupting
not only his fellow students, but also me during a class discussion. Another one of my students had her feet up on
a chair, which I know I have ignored in the past. As a result, she had moved from using one
chair as a foot rest to two chairs across which to sprawl like she was enjoying
a movie in her living room. I quickly
corrected the situation, asking her take her feet off the chairs, scanned the
room and saw two others doing the same thing, corrected them, and got down to
business discussing “Oedipus the King.”
As I was driving home I had to accept the fact that my easy-going
demeanor was largely to blame. Because I
had overlooked these little habits in the past, the habits began to grow and
spread. What’s funny is when I asked the
students to stop sprawling, I used my “training Noel” voice and praised them
after they had complied.
Yes, my dear readers, I
should have taken basic obedience training years
ago! When I think of all the people I
have let walk on me or take advantage of me in small (and big) ways, I realize
that simple one-hour classes at dog obedience school could have saved me from
myself.
So, I will continue reading
training books (first up, Cesar Millan’s Be
the Pack Leader), Noel and I will sign up for more classes with the Coeur d’Alene
Dog Fancier’s Club, and we will practice old and new tricks. Next year I get to teach two 8th
grade English classes along with my usual high school literature classes, and I
will practice my training skills on fourteen year olds.
Perhaps in a year my
assertiveness score on the Enneagram test will actually cross into a whole
number. Dare to dream….
No comments:
Post a Comment