Duke Goes To School
Well its back to school time for most of you kids. Duke, not to be outdone by you kiddies, is off to school also. Duke is learning how to be a Good Canine Citizen. And he has to take tests also!!!
Just like most of you, Duke does not always like to do everything he's told and prefers to have everything his way, but Duke, like the rest of us, has to learn to behave himself and be disciplined.
We call this good doggie manners. With dogs we try to stay away from punishment. If you act up in class you might have to stay after school and write a bunch of times "I will behave in class."
Not, Duke. When Duke acts up we simply have him do something else and then we give him a treat for doing that something else. For instance, if Duke would jump on you we would make him get down and then tell him to "sit." As soon as he obeyed, we would give him a treat.
So we try to get dogs to enjoy obeying by rewarding them for doing what we ask. Since Duke likes treats he's pretty anxious to obey so he can get his reward.
Unfortunately, Duke has a hurt paw that is very slow in healing. We are working with the Vet to try different things in hopes that we can get this problem solved. He is missing some of his pad on the bottom of his paw. It was like that when we found Duke so we don't know what happened to him.
Most of the time Duke wears what I call a helmet - its a plastic shield that fits around his neck and keeps him from chewing on his sore paw. If we did not have the helmet, Duke would keep tearing the bottom of this paw open and thus keep it from ever healing.
When I take him in the car or when its hot outside or when we go to school I take the helmet off. So his training is going slowly since it hurts him to be on his sore paw a lot. To make matters worse both the trainer and I managed to step on Duke's sore paw because he tends to walk on it funny.
Poor Duke!!! We felt so bad. So we are switching him to our right side instead of our left side when we work with him so we are less apt to step on that sore paw!!
So school was probably a lot more painful for Duke that it is for you!!! On the other hand, I bet you didn't get a bunch of treats during your class session. Maybe we should talk to your teachers about trying that trick. All day long whenever you did anything you were suppose to do we would give you a reward.
What would be a good reward?? Candy, cookies, an ipod, a puppy, a horse??? Wow, you could really rack up the goods on a deal like that!!!! Unfortuantely, your teacher and your parents are probably hoping that a good grade will be enough of a reward for doing what you are told. I know it was for me when I was in school but then I was one of those strange kids who actually liked to study. (Unlike a lot of other people in my family - we won't mention names!!)
So when you go off to school remember Duke is learning too!! He's studying to be a Good Canine Citizen. I hope you will take school seriously and learn all you can. And try to remember that learning should be a life long activity - not just when you are in school. I've learned a lot more things since being out of school than I ever did in school but school gave me the tools I needed to keep on learning.
The world is a huge place - there is no end to what you can see, hear and do if you want to. I hope you get the "want to's" even if you don't get a reward all the time. I'll let you know how Duke does in future classes.