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
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