To train the Dog

Since there are currently only about 5 (and that may be overestimating) people reading this little thing, I don't think I run the risk of offending too many by mentioning the brain candy I ingested this summer during our family fishing trip to Northern Minnesota.  

I only call the Cesar Milan's Be the Pack Leader:  Use Cesar's Way to Transform Your Dog...and Your Life brain candy because it was 1.  a quick read (I read it in a day and a half of fishing...the walleye thank me because that meant I wasn't catching them) and 2. it was pop psychology that was fun to read, if not apply.  I would never knock a book by the great Dog Transformer; that guy knows his stuff!  Our fishing guide, Chris, has trained dogs for many years, and wanted me to read it so we could talk about it.  (He has given me many books over the years, we share a love of reading, he in his backwoods home and me in the chaos of four kids and a dog).  We just got a new little puppy ourselves after our yellow lab was put to sleep about a year ago.  The puppy is so much more work than I thought he would be!  I don't know why we got another one, maybe because I was begging for an

other dog...oh yeah, that's right.  What was I thinking?  Anyway, so far, I haven't been able to apply Cesar's leadership advice to our puppy because 1.  He is a puppy and 2.  He is a puppy.   At this point, I am just trying to wait out the days until he calms down and listens to me.  Whoa, that is the same thing I am waiting for with the children.   I'll let you know how it goes.

The takeaway for me in this book is about being assertive both with your dog and with your life.  Not the bulldozing, steamrolling assertiveness, but rather what Cesar calls calm-assertiveness.  It is, of course, good advice.  Remaining calm and standing firm are pretty much what anyone would aspire to; that it works in leading your dogs is the spin that Cesar puts on it.  

Training dogs (and humans) essentially boils down to discipline and commitment.  Probably the two words that get the most bad press in the world.  That is why there is a market for a book like this.  Happy training.