How I Learned That Patience is Key in Dog Training
I used to have these unrealistic goals like, “I’ll teach Laika to roll herself up in a blanket in just three days.” But recently, I’ve adopted a new mindset: “Just keep improving.” When it comes to dog training, I’ve realized there isn’t a perfect timetable for everything—we work with what we’ve got. I now truly understand the importance of being patient. Some lessons come quickly, while others take their time.
Don’t get me wrong—having goals is fantastic and really helps you get things done. But with dog training, sticking strictly to timeframes usually backfires. I would end up repeating commands over and over, hoping something would click. Without understanding, that repetition is useless. I learned this lesson from a French teacher I had back in college.
Repeating Isn’t Always Effective
In my beginner’s French class, my teacher had a strict “no English allowed” rule from the start. I barely understood anything she said. I was excited when we learned numbers and the alphabet because I could follow along. But when it came to forming sentences, I was completely lost.
My teacher asked me, “Quel est votre passe-temps favori?”—it sounded like complete gibberish to me. I knew she was asking a question, but I had no idea what it was. I broke the no-English rule by saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” and just froze because I didn’t know how to apologize in French. Rather than moving on to another student, she kept repeating the question louder each time, as if I had a hearing problem instead of not comprehending the language.
That class left a lasting impression on me about the frustration of not understanding. I felt hopeless, and the laughter from my classmates didn’t help. The teacher wasn’t bad; she just didn’t have the patience for students who didn’t immediately get it. Eventually, I switched to Spanish, and things went much smoother.
Later on, I learned “Quel est votre passe-temps favori?” means “What is your favorite hobby?” If I’d been clever, I might have cheekily answered, “Learning Spanish.”
Patience is Essential for Understanding
So, what does this have to do with dog training? It taught me to be much more patient with Laika when she’s learning something new. Words are useless without meaning—repeating them endlessly won’t help if they’re not understood. If Laika doesn’t get something right away, I step back and figure out what’s confusing her instead of just repeating the command louder, hoping for a miracle.
When we work on new commands, I take it slow and make sure she knows exactly what I want. For example, just saying “Go get your glow ball and bring it to me” is pointless if she doesn’t understand what “bring it to me” means. (No, Laika, it doesn’t mean bring it close and then run away.)
Language can be complex, especially for commands with multiple steps. I often think we must sound like the adults in “Charlie Brown”—just a bunch of indistinct noise—when we’re trying to teach our dogs new things.
