New tricks for an old pet owner

My love for my dogs is fairly good news for them: it means I won’t physically abuse them, won’t lock them outside all day, and won’t ignore them. It means that I will rub their tummies and scratch their ears and take them for daily walks.

I do love them, and maybe that’s enough. But maybe it’s not enough.

For years, I’ve kicked myself for not being the dog lover who:

• taught his dog how to do great tricks like rolling over and shaking hands
• taught his dog how to consistently behave calmly in the presence of other dogs.
• taught his dog how to bark only when it’s appropriate.

(And that list goes on and on.)

But the bottom line here is that the real problem is that my failure to have civilized dogs is the result of my own failure to learn a few training “tricks.”

The good news is that as dog training expert Zak George notes, the old saw that we can’t teach old dogs new tricks is a myth. And not only can old dogs learn new tricks, but old guys like me can apparently learn tricks – dog training tricks – too.

That’s my ongoing challenge as I write for the ReadyPetGo.org audience: to devote more time to studying training methods and then working with my dogs so that I can have a happier, more productive interactions with them.

What I learn, I promise to share with all of you. And together, we can all have better relationships with the dogs we love.