Every day we send our kids to school and expect them to learn. But do we give much thought to what that really means? I had the pleasure of attending my first obedience training with Rocky on Saturday. Our trainer is a wealth of information. He started the class with an instructional lesson on the behavior of the gsd. Then he addresses the human behavior and how it impacts the dogs ability to perform. Bart told us that as handlers we need to be fully focused on our dog and at the same time, aware of everything going on around us. This way we will not enter any situations that will cause our dogs to doubt our leadership. For example, if we are working on getting a dog to heal, we will not move it into the space in front of another more viscous dog. That was only part of the lesson. So....I really worked on being focused on my dog, adjusting my energy to keep him calm, being the leader and staying in the present. From Rockys perspective: We were next to a highway and the noise and movement was distracting but no....I did not chase any cars. We were sitting in a large circle on the lawn but no...I did not jump on any one or start licking them. I didnt bark...just wined a little when the female next to me wouldnt shut up. I was a good pup...for three hours! Who would have thought that could be so exhausting? I felt really proud of both of us and Bart even made a comment that he could notice how well we worked with the energy and how the behavior of Rocky reflected that control. Sunday morning comes along and ...second puppy class. Might be hard to believe but I was not looking forward to going. I was tired and it was hard work! But we went anyway. This time bite work. Thats a nice way of saying we are teaching the dogs to use their aggressive tendencies for good not evil. Wow, this is not the class to check out at! Adds new urgency to the word FOCUS!!! Long story short, i walked away with a new respect for what our kids do each day of the school week. There has to be some pretty strong pull to maintain the kind of focused attention on learning that is required by todays educational experience. Sharing this with my honors students first period (about the class and how I felt) they smiled and nodded, offering up insight that they have gained as students. We need to be careful, our kids are far more wise than we give them credit for. Just ask them about the things that really matter, they will tell you. As for me and Rocky? Well...at least through the school year we are going to stick with Saturdays. I just dont have that much time to turn over. But it would be good for both of us if I did. Heres wishing all your educational experiences are good ones~
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 03:58:33 +0000
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