ethan vs. the dogs
I've been spending a lot of time in dog obedience training classes in the past 4 months, volunteering as an assistant to the trainers, down at the
SPCA. Here's a few random observations about the people who come in to train their dogs. I'm sure many of these observations apply to parents with young children in early school or play group environments.
- Everybody wants their dog to be awesome. What's that? The trainer told you to put your dog in a STAY, and then step back one foot, and then go right back? Why is it that you stepped back 15 feet, hid under a table, then walked back sideways? Because your dog is awesome and it doesn't need to slowly work up to harder tricks? No, it's because you're a dick.
- When a dog isn't paying attention, not doing the exercises, why do people so frequently assume their dog is behaving out of malice? It's not that, it's just that your dog doesn't understand English, you haven't put the necessary training time in, and you get frustrated too easily.
- Dogs don't respond to manhandling so well.
- A lot of people could use a happy voice. If you're grumpy and pissy for a solid hour, your dog has no voice queue that he did a good job, no way to distinguish desired behavior and just hanging out.
Posted by Ethan at October 2, 2005 09:49 AM