It's All a Matter of Perception

[Sandy]

Most days I feel like Toby does "all right", but is not yet a beautifully trained dog. In the last week I've been given some compliments, which makes me feel like I am, just maybe, being too hard on myself.

First off - we have a girl coming to stay for half a day with Toby while we are at our son's wedding. She and her Mom came to meet Toby, and I felt he was not behaving well. He got a 2 minute time out in his crate, and I just felt overall they wouldn't have gotten a good impression. Well - I found out from a mutual acquaintance that after they left here they were remarking on how well-behaved Toby was, especially in comparison to their own dog. I didn't realize I'd done this, but I guess at one point he was doing something, and in mid-sentence I interjected "Toby, cut it out" and kept talking. Much to their amazement, he did indeed cut it out! So...diligence in training seems to be working.

Secondly, my sister-in-law and seven year old came over. Living in another province, they hadn't met Toby before. He was very interested in the little girl, who wanted nothing to do with him. Of course, that makes him even MORE interested. :) I did my best to control things, but felt it didn't go well. After they left, my Mom told me my sister-in-law remarked on what good control I had of Toby, and how responsive he was.

So there. Don't give up! Apparently even when I think Toby is having a bad day, it's really not so bad. Training, persistence, and consistency are the keys. Now, if it would just stop raining so we could burn off some steam..... :)

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

The rain is back here again also. But hopefully by the weekend when it's travel time...we will have sunny days again. Glad to hear your training is paying off for Toby, and always nice to hear compliments...when you least expect it they show you how much you really have trained them, but just like a child you get the bad days also when it's .."Did you teach me that"! lol. Hope the Sun comes out soon for you also...keep up with the Three P's...Practice...Patient's..and Praise.

[Adina P]

Yup...we're always harder on ourselves than most people are. I think it's good to have an idea of how you want Toby to behave and keep working on that. But it sure is nice when someone notices the results you've gotten from all that work you've put in training. Funny thing is most of the time people compliment the dog as though he got 'well behaved' on his own (rather than due to diligence on the owner's part) =)