As Asa and I continue to follow social distancing guidelines and staying home, I realized something very important. It takes a village to train Mom and Dad! Just a little over a month ago, all my dreams of having Dad and I certified as a Canine Good Citizen came to a crashing halt. We were at the final class ready to take our test, when we were told they couldn’t do it because of the social distancing mandate.
Since that time Asa and I have been hard at work keeping up with Mom and Dad’s training so they don’t relapse into bad habits. However, I have to admit it has been difficult doing it alone. Oh sure they rock their sit, down, stay, heel, and recall commands with just us. However, we need those outside distractions to fully prepare them for the real world and their CGC Certifications. So I’d like to take this moment to thank everyone including those good, bad and indifferent, who helped us in the past to train Mom and Dad, because we really miss you!
Thank you to the enthusiastic toddlers who ambushed us, usually from behind, to give us a big hug. Although it can be startling at a crowded event to suddenly have someone on our back, or grabbing our ears to give us a big smooch on the nose, you sure taught us to expect the unexpected, and more importantly to not react. Thanks to you, Mom and Dad learned that a distraction can appear from any direction, no matter how alert they think they are in their surroundings.
Speaking of expecting the unexpected, thank you to the completely random situations we found ourselves in while training. Even Mom and Dad’s trainer who thought he saw it all in his 20 years of work was surprised when we told him about the woman walking the cat on the leash at the state park, and the man doing a headstand in the park who mistook us for police dogs. We really weren’t sure what was going on in either situation, but you sure kept Mom and Dad on their toes!
We’d also like to take this time to thank the dogs and humans who felt that the rules don’t apply to them. This includes the dogs who were off-leash when the rule clearly stated one is needed, or when allowed to run free weren’t too up to date on their recall training. You’ve taught us to sit and patiently wait by Mom or Dad’s side while your humans regained control. I do admit I especially miss the ones who turned it into a good game of “Ring Around the Golden” by running in circles around us while your human gave chase. Whatever game you were playing, you taught us to be calm around others, even when you’re not so calm. Ok, I admit your humans also occasionally taught us a new word or two! But we can’t repeat those.
We’d like to give a big thank you everyone who politely asked if they can pet us, especially those who offered to help with our training. That usually meant asking them to stop petting us if we got too excited and forgot our sit or down command. Or some even had the fun challenge of trying to get us to break and run towards them abandoning Mom and Dad. Thanks for helping us to remember that Mom and Dad’s safety comes first and we can’t leave their side. We also appreciate the people who understood when we were having a particularly difficult time training Mom and Dad. Thank you for understanding when we politely asked you not to pet us while we regained focus on our task at paw instead of greeting adoring fans.
Speaking of adoring fans, we even would like to thank the dogs and people that completely ignored us! Being celebrities such as ourselves, when you walked right on by without so much as a “Hi Puppy!” it taught us that we weren’t always the center of attention. A tough lesson to learn when you’re a natural entertainer such as Asa. This thank you especially applies to dogs who ignored Asa’s attempts to play, when he should have been training Mom and Dad. These were tough lessons to learn, and you helped us through them.
Finally, we’d like to thank the folks who didn’t agree with us training Mom and Dad. The ones who ignored our requests to call your dog from us, and said, it was “ok, they just want to play.” Those who petted us despite the fact we repeatedly asked you nicely not to do it because it interfered with our lessons. We’d even like to thank the humans who got quite vocal when they saw us obeying the leash rule at parks and beaches, and called Mom and Dad hurtful names. We may miss you the most because you provided the most distractions when training Mom and Dad, and helped them to keep focused on our goal of becoming Canine Good Citizens.
We don’t know when the social distancing mandate will be lifted, nor can I guarantee how Mom and Dad will behave after not having contact with others for so long. However, when we are eventually allowed back out in public, we will never take anyone for granted again! Thank you to everyone for helping to train our Mom and Dad!
