Win a free copy of “My Doggie Says…: Messages from Jamie. Just respond to this blog post with a comment about how close you feel to your dog and the one best thing you have done to nurture your relationship with your pet.
Best comment gets a free copy of “My Doggie Says…” Contest ends 12:00 midnight, Pacific Daylight Time, Sunday, June 7. Callie’s decision is final.
Fred, unfortunately I don’t have a dog right now. But I’d love to get a small, cuddley one someday. Good luck with the contest!
Julia
aka Bargain Babe
If you’d told me 10 years ago that I’d be saying this, I’d have thought you were goofy, but one of the best things I’ve ever done to nurture my relationship with my dog was to enroll her in obedience classes.
I had been one of the uninformed – who thought that obedience class would turn my dog into some kind of robot with no personality. Luckily, events conspired to get Suzie and me to class, and we both loved it! In fact, we took the advanced class and the agility class because she didn’t want to quit.
Our relationship grew stronger – not because she learned to behave better – but because I learned to communicate in language she could more easily understand. It’s amazing how we humans say one thing with our voices and indicate something opposite with our body language. That’s almost as amazing as a dog’s ability to understand both voice and body commands.
I sure haven’t got the “body language” communication thing down pat with other humans, but dogs just know it naturally.
We humans are pretty fortunate to enjoy the attention we get from these superior beings!
Great comment, Marte. You make a good point. If you’re always fighting with your dog — “stop chewing,” “heel,” “stop jumping up,” it’s hard to get into relationship building. Some basic obedience helps you move your relationship to a different level.
This may seem like a “no-brainer”, but one of the things I’ve always done with our dogs is talk to them frequently – just as I’m going about my day and as we’re hanging out together. Nothing specific, not commands, and not baby talk (welll, sometimes baby talk) – just “chatter”.
For example, if I walk in a room and the dog’s there, I’ll say, “Hi Magpie, whatcha doing?”, “How’s my girl?” or some other simple thing. I know I’m not the only one who does this, but I’m also aware of dog owners who really don’t interact with their dogs unless it’s “training time”, “play time” or “yelling/bad dog time”.
I really think it helps build a bond, and they learn our speech patterns and inflections. Dogs understand us on so many levels – far better than we understand them, I believe. By including my dogs (we’re down to one border collie right now) in my “conversations”, I learn from them as well – I see their reactions to my voice in a quiet, calm, relaxed situation.
I have dogs for their companionship and see no reason not to include them in as many levels of my life as possible!
When I got my first Lab Sophie, my parents had died 6 days apart. I was having constant panic attacks and she was shy and afraid. We signed up for agility and together we learned and played. I felt she would learn to be braver and then realized she was teaching me the same life lessons. She hated it but she did agility for me. She has her Novus titles in Jumper and weaves and in the Standard course and had one leg each to go in Open. She’s 9, in great shape and never lets a plane or bird land near our yard.! She has taught me bravery, My chocolate lab has taught me to be silly and our youngest Sammy is teaching me patience. Working and playing with your dog, you just get so much in life!!
My dog Cinnamon was raised by gang members on the streets of Pacoima, CA before we got her. Her first language is dog, her second language is Spanish. The best thing I did was accidently start talking to her in Spanish one day and she immediately responded. Since she’s now going on 9 years old, she understands English better. But watch it around any cardboard boxes if you say Cervesa.