"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
Yes, I'm quoting from Shakespeare again. All the hours in school spent staring at plays had to have some payoff!
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| Finn is unimpressed by my literary inclinations 😆 |
I've seen a few conversations dotted around the Internet of late discussing cues and cue words. The particular conversation that kicked this entry into life was relating to the concept of whether to teach wait and stay as different cues with different behaviours attached. This seems to be one of those things that can generate intense discussion, with many people putting forward their viewpoint and, in quite a few of those cases, insisting that it is the ONLY valid viewpoint.
Dog training is an industry and a practice that has an awful lot of jargon attached, often with nifty acronyms that make the whole process seem like some kind of magical mystery to which the uninitiated are not invited (in the cases of some trainers, I'm not convinced that isn't the whole idea!) Amongst all of this are the what feel like commandments: you MUST teach your dog to do this, you must NEVER allow your dog to do that, and you must REGULARLY do something else.
Yes, there are things that your dog needs to know how to do. They need to come back when you call them. What should you do to call them back? Call their name? Yell 'Come!' or 'Here!'? Do some kind of interpretative dance? That last one probably wouldn't work too well in a high distraction environment, but you would have the attention of all the people in the area wondering what on earth you're doing! 😂 You need to have some method of getting your dog to remain in one place for a period of time. Eeek! Do you get them to 'sit and stay' or 'down and wait'? Does wait really mean 'wait until you're allowed to move' or is it more along the lines of 'wait until my back's turned and then do what you like'?
The answer? Do what works for you and your dog, and what you know you can reliably coach them to do. Some dogs will wait and stay as separate cues, as their humans differentiate between going back to them at the end of the desired behaviour or calling the dog to them. My own dogs wait, often along with a hand signal, and the wait ends when the hand signal is dropped. My young dog is put in a sit or down before being told to wait because he still gets a bit over-excited if doing this off lead, but waits beautifully in a stand on lead waiting to cross a road, so we'll get there with him.
I used to follow so many 'rules' in my dog owning history. Having a dog that can struggle with things and needs extra support and guidance has taught me to question why I do anything in a particular way, and we adjust and customise what we need to know so that it works for us. So long as you and your dogs are safe and can do the things you need for the safety of all concerned, you're good.
This obsession with titles extends to how we title ourselves as people that share our lives and homes with dogs. I have had people grumble because I refer to 'guardians' in Fight or Fright, and others that have objected to the term owner. Pet parent is another term that can cause a complete schism in dog lovers. To be completely honest, I don't care what you call yourself. I've been a guardian, an owner, Finn's Mum, the whole works. I don't care if you want to call yourself the grand high emperor and canine overlord. Treat your dogs right and have respect for everyone and you can call yourself whatever you like!
New in the Blue Merle world is the fact that I am now offering freelance writing services in the canine world. Combining my two passions, dogs and playing with words, means that I really get to feel that I'm enjoying my work. It may not be completely true that doing what you love means never working a day in your life again, but it certainly makes working for a living much more enjoyable!
Apologies once more for the length of time in which I have been quiet. Losing my beloved grumpy old man really rocked me in a way even I hadn't expected, and then family things occurred that have taken me out of circulation for a while. It's made me think a lot about a number of things, the foremost of which is the need to appreciate what you have while it's there because one day it may all be gone, without warning, and then it's too late to appreciate what you had, be that animals or people. Let your family, human and animal, know you love them 💖
I had an epiphany one day when I realized that no one explains the why of the "commandments." "Your dog must never go out the door ahead of you." I'd heard that so many times from so many people and it's part of the Therapy Dogs International test so it seemed like an important commandment. But I never really thought about the why of it until I heard someone say how glad they were that their dog never went out the door first since it meant they could get to the open gate and close it before the dog escaped. And I realized this rule had a really good reason behind it. My dogs go out before me almost all the time but they do wait until I've looked to make sure the gate is closed and there are no other hazards visible. Since then I look at all the commandments in terms of why they exist and decide whether it matters to our lives or not before adopting them. I suspect we're all happier as a result.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're back to writing. I've missed you.
That's exactly it! Some of them make perfect sense when you look at them, but nobody tells us why, just that they HAVE to be done that way. I suspect you are right about being happier - I think a lot of people are if they can take the time to think about the why of what they are doing and see if it is in fact something they need to be concerned about.
DeleteThank you, that's a lovely thing to say! It's taken some time to climb out of the fog but I'm happy to be here again.