This is a beautiful observation as told by my friend Jill. It made me think of verse 36 of the Tao-te-ching.

Dora the Corgie teacher

Dora had her first training session last Friday with Penelope the dog whisperer.  It was an indepth evaluation so 3 hours and $300 later I found that our little princess is not very obedient.  The trainer said Dora wants what she wants 🙂

For homework, we were given a book and a list of exercises.  Dora went on strike the very next day and wouldn’t listen to most of our commands, even with the lure of treats !  It was so frustrating since I was no longer allowed to repeat the command.  During the session, Jim told Dora to “down” 5 times before she obeyed.  The dog whisperer asked whether he would tell the Dean of Georgetown University to “down” 5 times.  I said I would ask Jim to vaccumn the house at least 5 times 🙂

The list of “don’t’s”  grows longer: I’m not allowed to yell at her, pull on her collar, etc…  I’m just supposed to say the command and then silently count to 20.  It’s positive training so we are supposed to ignore bad behaviors and reward good behaviors.  I got so annoyed when she ignored me that I really wanted to smack her little rear end or give her a swift kick (but then I thought of my college gal pal who recently fell down the stairs after trying to nudge her cat out of the way …. okay Heather was trying to kick her cat gently and had her handful of stuff so couldn’t grab onto the railings to save her fall).   Anyway, I just picked a fight with El Prof instead.  He’ll be in the dog house for a long time since we signed up for a 6 session package !