discombobulated ramble today......what happened??? we have a surplus of people and not enough who can train dogs... i wish i had a nickle for every phone call i get about training dogs in general-- if i then had another nickle for the number of calls i get abotu providing an "emotional support dog" we would not have to worry about selling chicken bricks.... there is something lacking in the basic understanding of animals-- maybe it comes from 2 parents working to put food on the table--( mind you, food is one of my personal favorite things)..... but in an effort to provide animal experience, parents take the least labor intensive way out and buy a hampster which they keep all alone in a nice tidy cage- or a canary-with no regard for the social life of the solitary animal.. and the kid involved learns a feed/water/ detachment to the mind of the beast... it is that detachment that ends someone on the phone saying "i bought this puppy, i need to have you train it for me to have as a companion" what i want to say is try taking care of it yourself and thinking about some other living thing will start you on what you need anyway...
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this could go so many different directions... from the solitarity confinement of helen keller( movie miracle worker/patty duke) til she leartned to communicate by figuring ot the one word "water" -- to the the solitary confinement of so many of our animals--- from hampsters to 1800 pound mo... i bet mo spent 15 years of her life eithere in a 6 x 10' straight stall-- or in harness pulling a plow- her big excitement of the day was to get fed--- she arrived here mad at people-- and kicking...kicking with authority at anyone within reach...then we turned her loose in the yard-- no more kicking, great interest in bud's various projects in the shop-- many people can not get over the personality she has developed... all on her own..
we just let her..
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so many dogs are micromanaged-- leash laws mean never an chance to run unless there is a dog park - and someone willing to take them there... how m any dogs i have watched ... on a leash.. trying to move thier bowels while being dragged along by someone half awake, totally detached from what is happening....the norm "buy a cute pup.. get a collar to drag it around... feed it good food til it gets stronger than you and drags you around- so you give it up as impossible" . when... in soooo many cases having a well trained dog means mererly to teach the owner how to graciously cope with another living thing. it is not micro managing a mechanical robot...
maybe half of our "program' is allowing the dog to bond with their new partner-- which is why i still question the accepted process of giving a puppy to a puppy raiser, then taking it back at over a year old - usually into a crate in a training facility for months, -- then giving it to work for someone-- when it is possible the dog is still looking for it's puppy raiser...
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giving up for the day...
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cp--JENNIFER HARVEY sent this comment on farm life...
Not a lifestyle for those who have to plan everything.
