Zig Ziglar said (amongst many other brilliant things):
If you’re not willing to learn, no one can help you.
If you’re determined to learn, no one can stop you.
Never a truer word, and all that!
We are learning all the time.
Our dogs are learning all the time.
So .. what are we learning?
For many of us, it’s the convoluted plot of the latest tv drama, or the scores of our favourite sports team, the latest fads and fashions, a spat on social media ..
Our dogs? Ooh, they’re learning to bark at .. anything, to raid the bin, chew up shoes, dig holes in the garden, bounce on visitors ..
We and our dogs have massive brains!
And if we don’t train these brains, we are missing out on a whole lot of life.
Let’s look at dogs specifically, as you don’t need me to lecture you on the timewasting we all get sucked into in our digital age 😳.
Our dogs are a clean sheet. They’re ready to learn, and learn they will. And it’s down to us to ensure they’re learning what we want them to learn.
And that means we have to learn ourselves.
Back to Zig:
If you’re not willing to learn, no one can help you.
If you’re determined to learn, no one can stop you.
If you’re not willing to learn, you can’t help your dog!
If you’re determined to learn, you won’t stop teaching your dog!
There are few things more rewarding than watching your dog work out a problem you’ve presented him with.
Watching the wheels turn, as he thinks hard.
Then seeing the light bulb over his head as he works it out, and solves the problem!
Then (this is where the magic happens) you are teaching him to think for himself - so next time he sees that or a similar problem, he’s able to apply his learning and solve this new thing too!
See Coco working on stacking beakers in this video:
He’s worked out how to pick up the slippery plastic beaker, how to lift it without dropping it, he can drop it into place in the stack, and he can choose the next beaker (with a little guidance). And when he makes a mistake, see how he’s able to correct it to get the desired result.
This is in fact a useful skill. Coco has become “Dogbowl Monitor” and collects and stacks the dog bowls after meals. Very useful!
He also picks up screwed up or discarded paper that has missed the bin and puts it in for me.
How do I teach this to my dog?
It’s a gradual building up of confidence (in your dog, and in your ability to teach successfully) which means your dog will enjoy trying to work things out.
You can’t teach it overnight, unless you have already successfully taught your dog to do lots of the component parts. In this case, picking things up, hold, select, put down carefully (not flinging or dropping), listening to you ..
There’s a whole host of things your dog will learn before clever tricks like this.
And where better to learn than in the Brilliant Family Dog Academy!
But just before you rush off to enrol .. Hold your hosses! I’m diving into the Black Friday spirit with something very special for you if you haven’t yet joined our lovely Academy.
Take a deep breath, bookmark this page, and watch your inbox (and Brilliant Family Dog facebook and instagram pages) for news of what’s coming .. Only a few more days!
Are you determined to learn?
This could be your chance to have your dog clearing up the wrapping paper on Christmas Day!