Like any parent (pet or human) we must learn to read the signs those we put under our care try to tell us.
ASOco hibernated for 3 years after I packed up the school. Outwardly, my reason was because a day-to-day operation wasn’t productive. Business was dead on weekdays and became alive only on weekends. I expressed wanting to look for a more dynamic place. Meanwhile, our area at that park would be vacant and Jonathan didn’t want to let go of it. I knew he faced a crossroad too but I knew what I wanted: to get out of there. So I left Jonathan to start his own at the same place which ASOco would vacate.
Those 3 years was a time for evaluation and redefinition. I finally got rid of Spotty’s Trainer from Hell. But the dog kept his scars up to this very day.
I used to play back that afternoon I saw Jonathan terrorize Spotty on the agility playground and asked myself a hundred times why I had been so blind. If he could do that, then what had he done to my dog when he was a puppy and I would leave him at his dog school many years ago?
The thought made me cringe.
Spot had tried to tell me. But I couldn’t read his signals. I prolonged his terror for 6 long years.
Like any parent (pet or human) we must learn to read the signs those we put under our care try to tell us. Or else we will have regret – and guilt – to live down when our blind eyes open.
Jonathan eventually moved away from the park, got a job as a dog trainer in the army and continued giving private lessons on the side. But if I know him, he has probably adopted the new methods for training now. It is what everybody talks about in the industry nowadays. But you cannot tell Jonathan what to do. He will do it at his own time, in his own way. Since Jonathan is a lazy reader, he will never be learned enough. He will always miss a lot of facts. He’s keenly perceptive and boasts of having a wealth of experience since his childhood when that fondness for dogs emerged but there’s something still superior to educated learning even if only self-study.
ASOco Returns
ASOco returned to that same park in 2010 upon the invitation of a Mondio Ring Club also based there. But we set up only on weekends like the Mondio group – the vision I had for ASOco since the very beginning. I had envisioned ASOco only as a weekend club. That day-to-day operation we did in 2007 was very tedious and not worth the effort.
With Jonathan not around anymore, I saw myself return to the vow I made when I acquired Spot in 2002 – that I will take care of him my way (see "No More Fright Nights"). I “re-program” Spotty every weekend at the park now by re-introducing him to dog agility but this time by making him see that when it’s with me, it’s fun, treats, and good bonding memories.
Every weekend when we meet with other dog owners at the training area, everybody comes armed with treats – from dried liver, jerkies, denta bites, hotdogs, cheese to sliced barbecue. During Jonathan’s time, he disapproved of food treats. “It makes the dog poo,” he complained, when we were once at a mall watching a dog show. I saw bored pet owners at the sidelines hand treats to their dogs for want of nothing else to do. As a result I saw mall janitors busy constantly sweeping and mopping dog poop and urine. Jonathan was right in that regard.
But treats have a place in training, especially with the new trend now of Positive Reinforcement and Behavior Modification of animals.
Better the Second Time Around
The pet owners who come to the training area at the park are all educated and responsible. It is refreshing to share tips and information with each other. We share and compare. We help, teach, and encourage one another.
After several weeks of Spot’s exposure to Positive Reinforcement training, I made him do a Sit Stay before the beginning bar jump before we did a run. In the past, the dog always sat sideways, a nonverbal indication that he never enjoyed this activity. But this time, I saw Spot face the bar jump (expectant of his cheese or jerky, of course). At last! I give him one jerky before he runs and another jerky when he finishes. You should see him when he’s nearing the end. The dog bolts into a run and clears the last bar jump excitedly because he knows his favorite jerky awaits him there.
You’ll feel like you’re training a seal at Sea World when you’re working with treats but that’s how you reinforce the good behavior. We start beginners to give their dog a treat after every jump at the lowest bar level. When the dog gets used to it, in succeeding visits the treat follows after every two jumps. In time it’s less and less rewards until the dog will run the full course and get his reward in the end because he knows it’s there.
Regrets have a driving force. It has taught me to read up, study, and learn as much as I can about how to deal with the canine specie because now they live with us and we interact with them everyday. But with knowledge comes the ability to change things and for Spot, his terrors are over.
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| Spot "de-programmed." (Photo from shakydoo) |
“To err is human. To forgive, canine.”
- A Dog’s Life by Peter Mayle, Vintage Books, 199
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