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The other day while I was "judging" a fun dog show I saw a woman taking part in a dog competition and it required of her to ask the dog to sit. Instead of asking her dog for a sit cue she demanded a command for sit. The dog looked away and did not obey the command. She was very upset and embarrassed and could not understand the dogs disobedience as I am sure he always complies. To my wonderful surprise her daughter walked up to the dog, bend to the floor and put her hand on the floor in-front of the dog and very much child like requested the dog to sit. And like magic the dog sat. Well it's not magic it's patience, her gentle gesture in body language and most importantly her way of asking her dog to give her the wanted behaviour. It didn't take any rocket science and no force of either yanking, pulling or raising her voice. As adults we tend to loose that child like way to understand living beings amongst us, being human, K9 or any other. It's so easy to send out e-mails to everyone about animals or people in need, but how often do we really care and do something without letting anybody else know that we did that? Is it not suppose to be that we do something for the cause of it and not the praise? This particular dog was not worried of what people might think if he did not sit, he sat when it was asked of him with the right intentions. You don't have to belong to a club or institution to receive recognition or to be able to do good. All you need is compassion and willingness, skill will follow... I would say one of the most valuable things my dogs has taught me is patience. Patience not only with things I want to do as there are many of those, but patience with myself and man kind. Having my 5 dogs I have learned to make use of positive ways not to just train my dogs but to live with them and communicate with them. I find myself that I am applying that same principals to my baby. Instead of focusing on what the dog is doing wrong in our eyes we should focus on how we are doing what we are doing when we ask the dog for a sit... The S.A. Pet Friendly Directory is now available in most book stores, online and at dog-care-centre shop. Also read an article on Huskies and how to keep a sled dog happy on page 270 - 271. The first print ordered of Winter Dogs should be arriving end of January from the printers.
Winter Dogs; Living with Huskies as Pet Dogs- Now also available on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com and Kalahari.net, petspublications.co.za.
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