When we first came together, Maria often said I was the dog trainer, she was no good at it. This was one of a long list of things Maria said she wasn’t good at that turned out to not quite be true. Our first dog together, Frieda, was almost completely untrained. I trained her, in part because I like it, in part because she wanted to eat me,  and also because I knew Maria would come and be with me without Frieda, she would never abandon her.

Maria was stunned at the progress Frieda and I made together, she was paying close attention, and when Frieda came to trust me, so did Maria. Neither of them liked men very much. Maria still doesn’t.

When Fate came, Maria paid close attention to the training, and training Fate was rough. She is an intense, instinctive creature with a very strong will. When Gus arrived, Maria had a whole different persona. She wanted to be involved in the training, and she was, as I suspected, very good at it.

Maria is patient, positive, and focused and analytic.  She sets reasonable goals and sticks to them.

She communicates clarity and enthusiasm, and wins when she needs to win, and backs down when she needs to back down or drop it. She is very in tune with Gus and knows when his attention is waning, or when he is being asked to do too much. She built a strong foundation for training Gus by feeding him, giving him occasional treats, speaking to him in a sharp and high voice.

A few of the self-righteous busy bodies who love social media have squawked at me because we are putting too much pressure on Gus, asking too much of him, bringing him into the pasture too quickly, endangering him by letting him come near farm animals.

I don’t think so. Dogs are adaptable and savvy, that is why they do so much better with humans than almost any other species. Gus is a testament to the notion that we need to treat all dogs as dogs, and not as weak-minded children. Maria has put aside the attachment issues that blocked her from dog training, she has a very natural gift for it, and we are both having fun training Gus.

But this time, the roles are somewhat reversed. Maria is doing the bulk of it, and this time, it is often me watching with respect and admiration.  This does not threaten or bother me, it is the greatest joy to see Maria come into herself, the person she was meant to be.  There is not much yet that I have seen that she cannot do. Come and see.