Two dogs are staring at me right now. They aren't my dogs, but since I'm house sitting for a friend of mine, his dogs now look to me to fill their existence in his absence. They are greedy for attention and unruly about commands. One is a three-year-old black lab named Zen, and the other is her one-year-old golden lab niece named Mable.
Zen and Mable. Mable and Zen. While other people have been feasting and frolicking with friends over the holidays, I've been mostly dealing with these two beasts. Anyone who knows dog owners has seen them coddle and treat their dogs as if they were kids. Especially if they don't have any kids.
I don't have any kids. I don't have any dogs either, but I worked at a kennel for the last two years of my college days. People assume my pooper-scooper days make me imminently qualified to take care of their pooches, and I guess it pretty much does. That doesn't mean you'll agree with my style of parenting, however.
I haven't been very nice to Zen and Mable a lot of the time. I wanted to take them outside and go for a walk, but they were not trained very well for anything including walking down the block on a leash. As a result they met with quick scolding punishment when they tried to bolt from the leashes. My best move is to grab the dog by the neck and slam it to the ground while yelling "No!" The worse their actions were, the longer I held their neck down to the ground. It's a spanking for dogs, and Zen and Mable have gotten a few during the last couple days.
If they run out of the yard, neck to the ground. If they yank the leash at full speed, neck to the ground. If they run around out of control wrecking things, neck to the ground.
Some people don't believe in corporal punishment for their dogs or their kids. Here's my feeling about it. Dogs and kids should be a little scared of their parents. If they're a little scared of their parents, they might think twice before doing something stupid or mean. Dogs and kids need a reason not to do wrong. If the reason is that they're scared of a spanking, then the deterrent worked.
If dogs and kids aren't worried about what their parents will do to them if they do wrong, they will do whatever they want. As a result, the parents with cocky children become the ones who are afraid. There are far too many dogs and kids who aren't worried about consequences, and far too many parents scared of what their cute little babies have become.
The high school drop out rate in Albuquerque is estimated at 33 percent. 33 percent! One out of every three students in a ninth grade classroom won't get a high school education. They don't even teach that much in high school, and a third of the kids are free to run around chasing dogs instead of sitting in the classroom.
I didn't like high school. I loathed it like many others, but I went. I never wanted to get into that argument with my folks. Quitting high school was never an acceptable option for me because of my parents. If you let kids know what is expected of them early on and keep on them about meeting their expectations, they may even surprise you and do what you say. The same goes for dogs.
A lot of people want and have a dog, a lot of people want and have a kid. Most don't want their dog to be the mean one, and most don't want their kid to be the evil one. But to steal a line from an unpublished novel, "A lot of people like the idea of having a kid more than actually having one."
To get a dog means responsibility. To get a kid means responsibility. It means being mean almost as much as being nice. It means having the courage to tell your offspring what you want and then back up what you say. It means doing more than you ever thought you would have to do, and then doing some more.
Zen and Mable are now lying on the ground peacefully. They are not wrecking the place. When I take them outside, I don't have to put them on a leash because they know how far they can go without being punished. When I tell them to stop yapping and nipping at each other, they stop. When I call, they come. They will still slip up, and they will still get necks to the ground. But they are learning what is expected of them. The more they learn, the less they are punished until they will hardly be punished at all.
How are your dogs and kids doing?
Chris Jungle had two unruly dogs as a child long before he understood about responsibility and necks to the ground.