Obedience. And acting.

So today, let’s talk about obedience training…

My human has calculated that she has probably spent enough money on obedience classes to send three kids to university.  Well…  That MIGHT be a BIT of an exaggeration – just two kids.  For those who don't know - when Frodo steps in the obedience or rally ring with my human to compete, he looks pretty darn impressive.  Heck, I even got my first Rally obedience title this year in one weekend – with 2 out of 3 high in class finishes.  But I’m here to tell you – it’s all an act.

You know how you see the actors like Tobey Maguire playing Superman and Michael Keaton playing Batman…well – those guys REALLY can’t fly or fight superheroes in real life.  They are actors.  And when it comes to obedience…Frodo and I are actors.  Put us in a competition ring and we LOOK like we are well behaved and obedient. We are attentive to our human.  We heel around the ring like we are glued to her pant leg.  We stare at her longingly – like there is no one else in the world we would rather be with….The judges even comment what a GREAT breed we are.  But it’s all an act. 

Let me tell you about real life obedience and real life heeling…

 When we walk down our dead end country road, in the dark in the morning, with our human wearing her headlamp, if we smell or hear anything out of the ordinary, the word “heel” disappears from our vocabulary.  And we are smart enough to know the laws of physics and that if we BOTH pull at the same time – when we are walking REALLY fast, we can cause a sudden release of our leashes – because our human would rather not succumb to the laws of gravity.  Now the “leash release” doesn’t happen very often – as our human IS smart enough to see when we are beginning to walk quickly – and she KNOWS what we are trying to do.  In most instances, she’ll pull out the ammunition – a ready supply of treats in her coat pocket.  That will usually slow us down. 

On some days, if there is nothing particularly interesting, and we don’t feel like pulling, we’ll try another exercise.  Voluntary heeling.  We get in close – just like we would in obedience competitions – and heel like we are trying for a very high score.  And we’ll even jockey for position – to see who can get in closer.  This move will often cause our human to almost trip and fall as well.  It’s a passive aggressive form of heeling.  We LOOK like we’re being good…but it’s another act.  Once our human indicates she won’t give us a treat, we give up.

And of course our last type of heeling is on rainy days.  The sack-of-potatoes heeling.  This is where our human walks, and we drag behind her.  It is our least favorite type.

I think our human would have been better off spending the money for those obedience classes on more tasty treats for us.  I certainly know that if she were wearing a sirloin steak around her neck during our morning walks, I would be VERY well behaved.  My goodness, it certainly is challenging training you humans.

Oh but before I close – here’s a video of Frodo doing rally obedience.  Good thing he didn’t lose too many points for barking…My favorite part is when he and my human do the sidestep.  I must admit, my brother is pretty cool – even when he is putting on an act!

©  2014 Linda Wozniak