Flying Poodles

The dreary slog of training

I love training. Back when I taught people, I loved the lightbulb moment when a student finally got it, but I hated the part where I was trying to teach 32 kids at once, the classroom was a mess, and most of the students did NOT get it, no matter how much I stood on my head.

But dog training… one person, one dog, and a lot of hot dog pieces. And the fascinating challenge of how to approach the problem so that the dog both understands what you want AND wants to give you what you want.

I have been training contacts for what seems like forever, and I still don’t have reliable contacts in the ring, but I’m getting there. I love Debbie’s attitude to the problem: “so, you have a training problem? Train.”

It’s so hard to be clear on what I want, and not to accept sloppiness… But it has to be done.

Of course, there’s a payoff: that moment when you realize you’ve been successful and communicated with another species… and the teamwork shines.