 |
Barking up the right tree
|
___I finally finished obedience school. And no, I wasn’t learning how to be a good Southern Baptist woman.
___ This was dog obedience school, to which our new dog, Molly, and I trai
 |
ALISON WINGFIELD
|
psed once a week for six weeks. It’s still questionable about who learned to obey whom.
___ With about 12 dogs in the class, including a friend of mine and her new dog, you can imagine the chaos on that first night. All the dogs kept barking and getting tangled in each other’s leashes. It was so noisy, we could barely hear the instructor.
___ After that night, my friend and I were picky about who we stood by if we could help it. We knew we didn’t want to be next to the uppity Schnauzer, the excitable hound dog or the barking black lab.
___ Not to say that our dogs were perfect angels either. About 40 minutes into the class, every week like clockwork, Molly got bored with it all and started nipping at me and trying to start something with some of the bigger dogs in the room. One week, she looked right at the meanest dog there, a big German Shepherd mix, and deliberately barked at him.
___ Another time, she got intrigued with a dog bed under a table and sniffed at it for half the class. I didn’t stand next to the table again.
___ What they don’t tell you before you start, but I should have known, is that the class is just the beginning. After that, the real work starts. I had to work with Molly every day on the skills we had learned in class, adding to them every week. She wears me out.
___ The best part was going with Jane and her dog, Tess. We traded off driving, so the dogs rode together in one car every week. After some initial misgivings, Tess and Molly became good buddies and were excited to see each other.
___ Now that we’re done, I imagine the next time we get together, the "girls" (as Jane and I call them) will be confused about why we’re not going to class.
|
|
___Life was simpler before Alison and Molly went to obedience school.
___ In those glorious before-school days, walking the dog was just walking the dog. If I wante
 |
MARK WINGFIELD
|
d to run with her, we ran. If I wanted to walk with her, we walked. If she wanted to walk on my left, I let her. If she wanted to walk on my right, that was fine too.
___ But now we have instructions to follow when we go for our little walks. Molly has to walk on my left side only. The collar has to be just so. And I have to hold the leash a certain way and at a certain length.
___ If either Molly or I don’t do all these things, we get in trouble when we get home. Alison watches us out the window to evaluate our behavior.
___ I’m forced to be obedient, and I didn’t even go to the classes.
___ Our neighbors and friends have been impressed with Alison’s commitment to tackle six weeks of obedience school--and at a school located in a froo-froo part of town, no less. But the truth of the matter is, if she hadn’t paid the money up front, I’m not sure Alison would have kept going after the first or second week.
___ Learning to be obedient is hard work for dogs and owners both. You can pay all the money you want and go to an obedience school in the nicest part of town, but that doesn’t guarantee your dog will learn to obey.
___ Molly’s a pretty smart dog, and perhaps that’s part of the problem. She’s got quite a mind of her own, which led to many a frustrating training session with Alison. There were days when Alison and I both thought Molly never would grasp the most basic commands.
___ But time and practice finally have begun to pay off. Molly hasn’t reached a perfect state of obedience yet (there are other classes available for a price, don’t you know). At least we’re seeing signs of progress.
___ I pray God sees the same measure of hope in me. It’s hard to learn to be obedient, so I’m hoping God sees I’m at least barking up the right tree--even though it’s a long way to the top
Mark Wingfield is managing editor of the Standard. Alison Wingfield is a freelance writer. The Wingfields moved to Texas from Louisville, Ky., where Mark had been editor of the Western Recorder, in which this column appeared weekly. |
|
|
PREVIOUS HE SAID/ SHE SAID COLUMNS:
1999: 6/16, 6/23, 6/30, 7/14, 7/21, 7/28, 8/4, 8/11, 8/18, 8/25, 9/1, 9/8, 9/15, 9/29, 10/6, 10/13, 10/20, 10/27 11/17, 11/24, 12/1, 12/8, 12/15, 12/22,
2000: 1/5, 1/19, 1/26, 2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23, 3/1, 3/8, 3/22, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24, 5/1, 5/8, 5/15, 5/22, 5/29, 6/5, 6/12, 6/19, 6/26, 7/10, 6/26, 6/19, 7/17, 7/24, 7/31, 8/7, 8/14, 8/21, 8/28, 9/4, 9/11, 9/18, 9/25, 10/2, 10/9
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
|