Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Tuesday Training Tip - "That's Not Food"

When your dog has found something tasty or smelly, and you don't want your dog to eat it or roll in it, what do you do?

My personal temptation is to shriek and run with my arms flailing - away. Far far away.

However, my dog, Foster, knows "leave it" and when I say it sternly, he responds. Matilda, when she hears "leave it," looks at me funny. If I'm unable to physically remove her from the source, she ignores me ("we're kind of working on this still"). After I say "leave it," I often follow with "that's not food." As a result, I can tell Foster, "that's not food," and he walks away from the offending object.

Some people think Foster can understand English, but it is actually a result of training. Words used to train dogs and other animals do not matter. You can use any word for "sit." If you want to say "cantalope" ("I cantalope, I'm already married", nyuk nyuk), the dog will respond by sitting if you taught the dog the action with that word. The words are strictly for our benefit.

Using a suitable and logical word is a good idea. If the dog comes to me and I ask it to "sit," and its trained with "cantalope," we won't be able to effectively communicate.

Isn't this like people? If I drive to Atlanta and order iced tea, I'm going to get iced tea with a load of sugar in it (not like that's a bad thing, I'm fond of sugar). Who knows what might happen if I asked for a cantalope.

Listening and clear communication have become more of a challenge, despite the technology of our "age." While I won't go into that, I'd mention that prayer, though it's own form of mystery, has never changed. God can hear the intention of our hearts, much beyond our words.

And he knows what a cantalope is.

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