Since we got Manning (exactly one year ago this weekend), I have seen similarities in how it would be like raising a child as puppies are quite needy and require a lot of attention/care. So I can see how it would somewhat prepare a couple for a baby. A German Shepherd like mine however, is preparing me for the worst behaved child imaginable. Imagine taking your child to the doctor, and he kicks and yells at every person he sees, trying to show them he is boss. Imagine him nearly pouncing on every new guest you have at your home. Imagine your embarrassment. You feeling like a bad parent. Welcome to my world. Don't get me wrong. I love him. He is photogenic, he is handsome. He lays in my lap and gives me kisses. He loves to play ball. He is a perfect angel at home with just us and Dolly. Public or with visitors, not so much. I kept blaming his "puppy-ness" but we are a little too past that now. This has to be fixed. ASAP.
Manning is testing me daily. He is that kid that says, "what happens if I do this? and this... and this?" pushing me a little more and more. He has literally tried and almost succeeded at controlling me. Well, we can't let that happen so off to one on one specialty behavioral training we go.
Training day one at home:
Manning sat, looked at me and laid down for turkey pepperonis just perfectly in our driveway prior to our walk. I thought, "This is going well just like last night at training class." Loose leash walking? Forget that. My dog is the most hyper active busy dog in the world. "Who is that? What is that? Where are they going? What's that car doing? That dog think he can bark at ME? I will show him!" It never stops. Our normal 15 minute one mile walk took us an hour tonight as I was TRYING (emphasis trying) to make him mind me and be mannerly the entire time while keeping slack in his leash. Talk about an arm workout. My neighbors throughout our subdivision were chuckling at all the correcting, "sit, down, NO, good boys" and Manning yelping from his pinch collar corrections. All I could think was "CHILDREN CANNOT BE THIS HARD TO TRAIN." I mean, at least I am bigger than them for the first 8 years or so. At least I can warn them that they will get grounded and they will understand. At least I can hope they get my genes and are well behaved and listen most of the time. This 70 pound dog can pull me around like it's nothing and I can't threaten to ground him or take way his toys or TV time. Either God is preparing me for the most misbehaved rebellious children in the world or just laughing in spite of himself.
The concept that good ole Freud developed seems so simple. Task complete, give treat. If you have 1,000 repetitions in which to do it. (uh, full time job, direct sales, husband, social life, family, working out, cooking, class reunion planning, church activities, cleaning...need I say more?) Needless to say, I have my hands full.
Don't worry, I won't be doing daily training blogs on his progress. I am mostly just marking this day down in hopes that in two or three weeks I can come back and compare and he has shown improvement. I know he has potential to be trained, but do I? I feel like I am the failure here. I can't train my dog to behave correctly, so how could I be a good mother? Frustrating to say the least. I just keep trying to tell myself that God has His reasoning. God is training me. He is using this experience with Manning to train me to have more patience. To be more diligent, compassionate and understanding. To love and be love. To trust and learn to be trusted. None of us sinners get it right the first time. We often repeat our mistakes. God still loves us. He gives us extra chances to get it right. If God can be patient with me, I can be patient with Manning. If I can get through this training, I may feel as if I can conquer the world.
I urge you, friends to take a look at whatever may be frustrating in your lives. Something that seems to test you. Something you lose patience with. It's that way for a reason. You feel that for a purpose. God would never give us anything we can't handle, as long as we trust and confide in Him. I feel he gives us trials so we lean on Him more. So we learn to trust Him and have more faith.
I am being trained just as much as Manning is. God always has a plan that trumps mine tenfold.
Proverbs 22:6
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
If you ever need a cheerleader, I'm here!
ReplyDeleteGo Manning!