Thursday, March 10, 2016

The Dog Whisperer

Today we met our newest ally and friend-Tyler-the dog trainer.  What a joy to have him come into our home and begin to guide us toward a saner "pet household".  Our dogs are not awful, they just need more guidance and consistency than we have provided of late and, together, our lazy human habits and their bad dog habits, have left us all wanting.

I was fascinated to learn that it is our eyes that mean everything to a dog.  They want our complete attention and it is through our eyes that we give them everything they are seeking.  So, in beginning to train them to stop bad habits we have to look away from them and give them nothing with our eyes.   I work with my students all the time on how to navigate around difficult personalities and situations, teaching the concept of giving "no energy" no attention, whatsover, to someone who is driving them to distraction.  However, I had no earthly idea of how to do this with the four legged beasts that are part of our home.  Sometimes, when we are right on top of something we just cannot see it properly; we are peering in at it too closely.  We have to step back and ask for help from another set of eyes.  Thank goodness for the Dog Whisperers among us.

5 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you called Tyler! He is great! It really is a learning opportunity to watch him at work. I love how you connected the advice you give kids to the advice Tyler gives us when it comes to those important "eye" messages!

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  2. Thanks! I"m going to try this with our new pup. Eye contact, who knew?

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  3. I really like how we get to learn with you. Also, I like how you talk about being too close to see something properly. It's interesting to think about in that the heart of the slice is about seeing and eye-contact.

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  4. I really like how we get to learn with you. Also, I like how you talk about being too close to see something properly. It's interesting to think about in that the heart of the slice is about seeing and eye-contact.

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  5. Our yellow lab really looks deeply into our eyes, like she's trying to read our souls, unlike any other dog we've owned. It will be interesting to hear about your progress.

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