Mia & Me – How Dog Obedience School Made Me A Better Person!

I’ve got an 11-month old German Shepherd/Labrador mix that I adopted from a friend. Her name is Mia and she’s absolutely…impossible sometimes. She’s also gotten pretty big, pretty fast. Not surprising given her stock, but the problem lies in that she’s a puppy stuck in a big dog’s body. She’s impulsive, reckless, always hungry, always craving attention, and can’t seem to stay away from tasting her own fecal matter. And that’s not even the worst thing. The worst thing is that she rarely obeys.

I say “sit!” and she decides to dart off. I say “don’t jump!” and she’s all over the houseguest. It’d be kinda cute — if she just didn’t crush you with her oversized paws. The only time she’s remotely obedient is when there’s food being withheld, but honestly, what dog isn’t? So to remedy this position, I felt that dog obedience school was the answer.

The class is operated by the local community center, so you can imagine the characters it draws in. I’m pretty much the only one from my age bracket (18-35). Everyone else there is either 55+ or 12 years old and younger. It’s not something I mind that much. We’re all in the same boat there. I remember on the first day of class when we had our orientation meeting (without our disobedient canine counterparts), I looked around at the awkward group dynamic of the class and had to ask myself if I was the participant of some TV sitcom caught unawares.

Comedic value aside, it’s already the seventh week and I can already see how beneficial the class is. Like most things in life, there’s been nothing taught that couldn’t have been learned simply via the internet so the class can easily be written off as a waste of time, but there’s the intangibles that we tend to gloss over so easily, especially when viewed from the lens of a tech-oriented and impatient generation. Here are some key things I’ve picked up from this class that can help you:

1. There’s much to be learned firsthand from the experienced. There’s a wealth of knowledge that the instructor has that I wouldn’t be able to reproduce anywhere else. He teaches something conceptually and doesn’t hesitate to execute said concept on one of the wayward dogs of our pack. We see the benefit of his technique and experience right before our eyes, and when it’s accomplished with the worst dogs of the lot, we begin to believe in our own ability.

2. You can’t downplay the environment. My puppy, Mia, loves people. When she’s out at the dog park, she’d much rather spend time playing with the other owners than their dog counterparts. In fact, she’s scared to death of the other dogs. They sense her eager puppy attitude and quickly take advantage of her. Most of the time, she ends up with her tail tucked securely between her legs by my side. So when I take her to a class of 20 or so disobedient dogs, she’s in a place she wouldn’t be if she were training with me alone at home. In class, she’s much more guarded and willing to receive instruction.

3. The most important element is discipline. By discipline, I don’t mean my right to exact my unholy wrath upon Mia when she’s ripped out all the wiring to the sprinkler system in my backyard for the fourth time in two weeks. I mean the discipline I need to put upon myself to commit to training her forty minutes a day for eight weeks straight. For Mia’s meager puppy mind to retain anything, there needs to be consistency. There can’t be other people doing the training and I can’t skip training sessions because of trivial things like a movie night or bad weather. If I want something to change (in her), then I need to be willing to put in the consistent effort and time to help her enable the change. So in the end, the responsibility for her bad behavior has nothing to do with her and everything to do with me. Hopefully she’ll be able to graduate the class come Thanksgiving. The burden of success is on me.

I didn’t want to be a part of the obedience class in the beginning. It’s on Thursday nights, it takes up the bulk of my time, and I have to commit hours of my week to training Mia, but in the end I’ve found that more good came out of it than bad. Next time you’re in a situation that you don’t want to be in (i.e. your boss telling you to do something you deem below you at work), try to apply these three principles. You yourself need to be able to be taught, to see yourself as a vital part in the work environment and to exact the discipline necessary to achieve success.

This post was originally posted at Goldsea.com.