Umpteen numbers of words have been said, written and webbed about the benefits of training your dog. And yet people find it unnecessary to undertake the job for the simple reason of lethargy till things have reached such an impasse that a novel campaign may soon be launched, asking the dog to train the master! Take the case of an office assistant having a pet at his apartment, locked up in the bathroom during working hours since there is no one at home to tend to it. If you had been the dog and the dog its master, you would surely have sunk your teeth at the master’s calf the moment the bathroom door was opened after a lapse of ten hours in agony.
Instead of confining him within the tiny toilet, isn’t it better to let him run around the apartment and training him not to flee and not to bark needlessly to the obvious concern of the next-door neighbor? If you have read George Orwell’s famous satirical episode, Animal Firm, you could jolly well have visualized the dog knocking off the bathroom ceiling and replacing it with chicken wire fencing for a little fresh air. Also, the dog being the master would have held you by your neck and locked you up in the bathroom where there is no music, no TV and the place stinks like hell. Think again – training your dog would have been worthwhile.
Think of the weather. As it rains heavily, the temperature drops in the cubbyhole of your bathroom. It also gets dark before the master returns home. The poor little fellow is alarmed by weird traffic snarls, gets hungry and finally becomes nervous due to the long hours in solitary confinement. All it can do is to walk back and forth, back and forth like a caged animal, taunted by the uncalled for punishment inflicted for no fault. In desperation the dog howls which brings further punishment as the angry next-door-neighbor complains. The little fellow is no more considered cute as it seemed at first but becomes an eyesore only to be treated with a cane. Has your eyes opened to let you feel that a little bit of training could have solved all the problems?
Can you recollect your infant days? If you cannot, take a look at other’s children’s. They usually stick everything within their easy reach into their mouth. In the case of a puppy, the situation is somewhat similar excepting that the puppy not only puts everything in its muzzle but chews it too, because it has a tendency to gnaw as all younger animals tend to do. However, when it has chewed the heck out its master’s favorite shoe, the punishment is severe. But the fault is on the part of the master or his lack of training in matters concerning dogs. So, as I hinted earlier, the training should involve both – the dog as well as its master.
Minor training should be imparted to a dog (apart from house breaking) so that it learns how to live side by side with humans. It will surely benefit both. And in any event, a normal dog is intelligent enough to grasp what is asked of it and learns quickly. The only thing relevant in the matter is patience since after all, it is an animal.
