Reach For The StarsThere's a story in the news last week I want to comment on. It's about a wheelchair bound disabled student who was walking her dog along a dirt track when her wheelchair hit a brick and veered off the track, tumbling down a 20 foot ditch. She lay trapped under the chair in running water during a torrential rainstorm for two hours. Her dog's not just a pet. He's an 18 month old specially trained helper. Some of the things he can do include unloading the washing machine and pressing the button at a pedestrian crossing. He knows an incredible 105 commands. No that wasn't a misprint - one hundred and five commands. And he's only 18 months old!! As soon as the accident happened the dog raced off looking for help. He found one of his owner's neighbours and, by leaping up and down and barking frantically, managed to get the neighbour to follow him back to the ditch. As soon as the neighbour saw what had happened he raced off to call an ambulance. The crew were able to rescue her unharmed except for mild hypothermia for which she was treated in hospital. It's a real story to warm your heart, and brings home just one of the reasons why we love our dogs so much. Where else do you find such unconditional love and devotion? But the main reason I mention it is to hopefully inspire you in your own dog training endeavours. Here is an 18 month old youngster that already knows 105 commands and has just added life saving to his repertoire! How many commands does your dog know? And how many does it perform really well? |
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I'm not trying to suggest for a moment that most of us need our dogs to understand anything like that number of commands, but it just goes to show what can be achieved if you set your mind to it. I think the most I've ever taught one of my own dogs is 20 different commands, though for some of those (like sit, down, come here I taught whistle and hand signal versions of the same spoken command. So I suppose if you include the whistle and hand signal variations that bumps it up to 26. I suspect that's probably a lot more than most people bother with, but it's still way short of 105. I have a friend who trained his springer spaniel to do some pretty unusual things. It would open and close doors and, believe it or not, pick apples! My friend would point to a particular apple and the dog would take a running leap and grab the apple in question. He could pick any apple up to about five foot off the ground. It was spectacular to watch, though I have to say it made rather a mess of the apple! The point is dogs have the most fantastic ability to learn. And if you will just break each task down into simple stages there is virtually no limit to what you can teach your dog to do. So don't settle for second best. If your dog is already trained to a standard you're happpy with then that's great. Good for you for having achieved it. But if your dog still has room for improvement in any areas then take inspiration from this story. There is no reason at all why you cannot reach for the stars. Go to it.... Recommended reading "Dog Training Blueprint To Success".
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