| What I Learned in 2008 Well, here it is, another year
started again, hopefully a better one than last year regarding the
situation of our country's financial system. Below is a little of
what my dogs taught me in the last year. (I wonder what this list would
look like if they wrote it?) I am sure your dogs taught you lots of good lessons as well.
1. Dani and Katie seemed to teach me that they could indeed
understand the English language. Since dogs are not verbal creatures,
then perhaps they can see visual images that I create. I learned
this from doing "energy work" with them. This has taught
me to consider that there may be other ways to communicate with dogs and
others that I hadn't seriously considered using
before.
2. Muligan and Ginny taught me that it is indeed possible to get a MACH
from start to finish in just two years and two weeks! I would
never challenge someone to beat this record because I don't think a
beginner student will ever again be so quick to achieve a
MACH.
3. My students and their dogs have taught me much in 2008. I
believe they have helped me sharpen my observation skills, improve my
timing in marking the desired behaviors, improve my ability to set the
dog up for success so they make the right choices, and increase my
ability to explain and demonstrate effective dog training
techniques. And I know that I have an even greater appreciation of
the value of the relationship between students and their dogs. 4.
Katie has reminded me of the sadness that
comes with watching a great dog deal with declining health. She
has always been such a proud and confident dog but is now haunted and
seeks safe places. It seems that she is slipping away. 5.
Dani taught me to stop complaining that she wasn't applying herself on
the agility course. She still seems to be just gliding along
rather than aggressing the course, but when we stay on course, she is
consistently one of the fastest 3 dogs in the class.
6. Dani pushed me to pursue
fitness training because I can no longer keep up with her and my timing
needs serious help. So I am considerably more fit than I was at
this time last year. When I next compete, we will find out it it
is working.
7. Rosie taught me that even an
old dog can still help teach as she assisted with the reactive dog
classes.
8. Dogs with training challenges today make us better dog trainers forever.
9. Lastly, agility is a great sport to share with friends. Sharing the plans, the travel, the motel rooms, and the shade makes the whole trip fun and memorable. May you all have lots of fun trips ahead in
2009.
Contact Mary Hunter at dogsaflying@msn.com.
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