On Wednesday it will be the 1 year anniversary of my adoption of Lizzie (the untrained, unsocialized at the time toy fox terrier). I has been a year of highs and lows. The earning of her CGC in April has been one of our biggest successes. She has learned many things over a year: basic obedience, LLW (although we're still working on it), a rapidly improving retrieve, to play with toys, basic agility, and many other things. But I think the most interesting is what I have learned (most of which will probably be obvious to all of you).

1. The best way to measure progress is to think of your dog as a day old when you get it and measure progress from there (this came from my trainer and has dramatically helped with the she should know this syndrome)
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2. If your dog has any manners at all, some people will think it is the best trained animal they've ever seen (even on days when you want to die of mortification)
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3. The biggest successes generally follow the biggest frustrations and the biggest frustrations generally follow the biggest successes
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4. If you are frustrated it's time to quit - in the middle of class if need be
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5. It's a lot easier to teach a dog agility than LLW (at least my dog)
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6. A gentle leader doesn't fix anything, but can manage a problem until you can fix it in other ways.
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7. The hardest part of housetraining is teaching yourself to let the dog out when it needs to go (reading the signals even when they are subtle)
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8. Yelling at a barking dog accomplishes nothing (I know, people sometimes have to learn for themselves)
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9. My trainer is generally right (it sometimes takes a little while to agree - I'll admit I'm a crummy student)
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10. My dog will learn things at her own rate and just because something takes longer to learn doesn't mean she or I are a failure or stupid
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11. A toy fox terrier is not and never will be a sheltie (again, obvious but sometimes easy to forget)
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12. A positive attitude towards a new task will dramatically increase the likelihood of success.
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13. The biggest successes are the small ones (interacting acceptably with my friend's 14 mo. old child, walking up a busy mountain path without throwing a barking/lunging fit, taking an entire jump chute with me leading off)
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14. A crated dog is a safe dog
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15. The worst problems are always the ones I haven't worked on diligently.
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16. The things that many people consider anal are the things that make my dog one of the best trained of dogs owned by the people I work with
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17. The hardest part of clicker training (besides learning to hold a leash, a clicker, a treat, and a dumbbell at the same time <g>) is resisting the urge to lure
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18. Patience isn't just a virtue, it is an essential component of successful dog training
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19. Anyone can teach an old dog new tricks
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20. The difference between success and failure is the rate of reinforcement
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21. The difference between success and failure is the timing of the click
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22. Every dog has it's strengths and weakness (sometimes you just have to look a little harder)
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23. The keys to success are a sense of humor, a plan, and a willingness to modify the plan when needed. And finally,
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24. There are no bad dogs and no trainers (In this I am including all dog owners - you teach your dog something even if you aren't trying to) - there are just dogs with issues and people doing their best to eliminate those issues with the background, baggage, and resources they have.

Well enough rambling, I'm off to the store to make people cookies and tuna brownies for class to celebrate.

Lisa Polazzi
polazzil@hotmail.com
Copyright 2002 Lisa Polazzi

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