I am supposed to be relatively intelligent by 10:00 o'clock this morning to go to that breakfast and get an award---- that's gotta be an uphill struggle--I think one of the things that has made Judy and I---- along with larkey--so popular is the fact that this is not a package deal where everything goes perfectly.. this frying pan and the cookie deal have so far been very safe... it puts the dog's head in the lap of the person and the dog's concentration on the cookie... it keeps his four feet on the floor and it's not thinking of pawing at the person to get their attention---that's one of my biggest fears because old people's skin tears very easily and doggy toenails could do an awful job.
so far--- and I say that with great fear and trepidation-- I think the joy that it gives these people outweighs the liability.. but fact remains anytime you handle animals and people.. there is always someone who's trying to figure out how to sue you.. you don't know who your friends are. Until someone feels they have the upper hand and could get a free ride.. sometimes I would love to say to somebody....” what would your mother think of you doing that” I've also noticed that many people who have grown up in Catholic grade schools always take some kind of pride in the fact that they endured having their hands slapped with a ruler by some nun.. I have never heard anybody brag with that same cheerfulness.. about having been forced to stand in a corner.
Discipline it's a very touchy subject all I know is if you're not disciplined by your parents------ the world is going to do it for you. I totally believe that these stone walls we have in New England we're responsible for training teenage boys.. because if they had to go out and roll rocks around the pasture for an hour or so before anyone would feed them supper my guess is when they sat down to dinner they had a lot better attitude than what caused them to have to go roll the rocks around in the first place. In my vast experience at child rearing. (two well behaved girls) I found that misbehavior was usually the cause of too much energy so that if I told them to go stand in the corner I was going to force them to be frustrated by lack of movement. but if I had them go “runaround the pine tree” ... which was about an eighth of a mile away... they would come back with an entirely different attitude.. I do think.. as I do with dogs.. you need to initiate their attention somehow.. ----the nuns used a ruler whacking their fingers as the “startle factor” which I've often discussed before . but I do think the standing in a corner bit is counter productive-- you need to use up the energy..
I heard once that some school had given up physical ed mid morning as too distracting--- I think they reversed that quickly.
