No street

April 29, 2008 – I can’t tell you how much work went into this photo. The command is “no street” (please notice the obnoxious goats in the background eating one of my trees) and it is no easy thing to get two antsy border collies and a curious young Lab to respect a road. But it is important, since many idiots come hurtling down it at high speeds, and it is my responsibility, not theirs to make sure the dogs do not run or wander into the road.
  Three or four times a day we come to this road and I wait until the dogs stop, then praise them. Each of my dogs is quite different. Rose is very intense, and cranked, and while she gets things quickly, she is also so hypervigilant and alert, that she can get distracted.
  Izzy, who I did not get to train until he is five years old, gets anxious when given too many commands, and Lenore would sacrifice all she knows for a dog biscuit, if she saw one across the road.
  I carry a choke chain in my pocket at all times, and while I never throw it at the times, I do toss it in front of them, yelling “no street” and startling them if they come too close to the road. This point, shown above, is where all three usually stop, even if I cross the road to get to the barns or the mail. We never, ever cross the road without my stopping and praising them for obeying “no street” or taking it upon themselves to stop.
  Training is the language by which we communicate with our dogs, the means by which they learn to live safely in a hostile world, and we are never done with it. It cannot be done in six lessons, or 100, but is an integral part of our lives with dogs, and is, to me, the joy and spirituality possible in our relationships with them.
  Each day, I stop and ask myself where my dogs are in their training, what they need. I don’t always have time to do it, and I don’t always do it as well as I should, but it is my fundamental responsibility to them. Loving a dog is easy. Training a dog is hard, which is why so few people really do it. Training not only enriches our lives with them, but saves many dog’s lives. Many more dogs die of poor training – aggression, behavioral problems, running into traffic – that die from abuse. Training helps them  understand the world we live in, and keeps them healthy, and makes it possible for them to move among us and live up to their ancient roles as our guardians and companions.
  There is a crisis in dog training in America. Very few dogs are trained, and most people think you have to be a TV star to do it.
  People think they can train dogs by watching shows or by finding dog gurus. Not really so. You train a dog by understanding their true nature, learning how to communicate with him or her, doing so in a positive, reinforcing way, sticking with it through the life of the dog, and by teaching them with the same determination and focus that goes into loving them. In many ways, loving and training a dog are the same thing.
  It is a gift to dogs and to me to be able to walk to the road, and know (I never take it fully for granted) that they are stopping, waiting for me, respecting the road. I definitely stomp and shout if they forget or get lax. They know what “no street” means and they pay attention to it.
 This is how I love them. In many ways, this is why I love them. And while I have no real idea what goes on in a dog’s mind, I suspect it is why they love me as well.