Training My Dogs

There are some pretty talented people out there who could train a dog to do anything.

I, on the other hand, fear I could not train a Spaniel to sit. I realized this a long time ago. When I was a little girl, our family pet was a Doberman/Shepherd cross. She was very smart and I trained her to stay, jump a small stick held by buckets, fetch, and other tricks. Looking back, I don’t think her learning had anything to do with my training talents, I think  she just really had a knack for knowing what to do.  Some dogs are like that.

I have friends who train their dogs for search and rescue. Some train them for showing or herding. We all know some dogs are service dogs- these are talents that amaze me.

Over the past twenty years, I have owned many dogs. When clients ask me about training issues with their pets, I share with them that I am truly not a trainer, my knowledge is in medicine. We share our stories and I tell them my dogs only know ‘cookie’ and ‘bye-bye.’ I add that sometimes they even come to me when I call them. My present dog is a Blue Heeler. His name is Rudy. He is a prime example of this. He hears me call him, he looks my way, and then promptly goes the other way! Little stinker.

One evening several years ago, my dogs were all sleeping on various blankets scattered on my living room floor. I was on the phone with a friend.  When my call ended, I said ‘bye bye’ to this friend. All of the sudden all eleven of my dogs jumped up and came to me with smiling faces and wagging tails as if to say, “Yes, we want to go bye-bye.” THAT they respond to.  We did go ‘bye- bye’ and then had ‘cookies.’ Great dogs.

Share the tricks you’ve taught your dogs.