January is the APDT‘s National Train Your Dog Month. It’s a great idea- a push to motivate people to train their dogs. Inlcuded in their website are some good tips as well as ideas to promote training. I maintain that a well-trained dog has many more opportunities to enjoy the world with their owners than a dog who is not well trained. There is no need to “break your dog’s spirit”, and in fact you shouldn’t! But fear of breaking your dog’s spirit is no reason to fail to train your dog. Training should be enjoyable for both the dog and the owner. It’s meant to increase communication and trust. In the best of cases and especially for working dogs, it should build a bond of cooperation.
My Boo is more than simply my dog. She’s one of my closest friends. She makes me laugh, she snuggles with me when I feel down, she works hard for me, and she plays hard with me. She is my partner in Paw In Hand. I joke that we girls have to stick together, as there are only two of us in a household of 6 males. There are a lot of things I couldn’t teach as effectively without her help. She is the dog I always wanted as a child- a dog that would transcend pet status to true friendship. I work hard to repay her for her love and help and partnership.
And yet, I tell people regularly that Boo is not special, except to her family (she is more precious than gold to us). She has humble beginnings- she was just an unwanted farm puppy when we picked her up. She was second to last of her litter- everyone else except her and one other were taken when we came. She has no prestigious breeding or involved puppy raising- simply an unplanned litter on a farm where her mom’s owners did their best to keep the puppies from getting into a farm-related accident. She wasn’t even pick of the litter! She was a free, dirty farm puppy who needed all her shots and all her training and who threw up everywhere on the ride home, and then spent the next couple days whining incessantly. I have enjoyed training her immensely, and she loves it too. Learning something new is one of her favorite things in the world. This is why I tell people that any dog can be a Boo, with a little training and a lot of love and companionship. By this I mean to say that while no dog will ever be precisely like Boo, any dog can learn to do the things she does and be as valued members of the family as she is. Can you believe I have been offered thousands of dollars for this mutt? (She is not for sale at any price, by the way.)
I hope you take Boo’s story as inspiration. Get out there and connect with your dog. Train them, love on them, and teach them the skills they need to be the companion of your dreams, your dream dog. They will love it!