I spent the weekend baby sitting my 4-year-old nephew, I never realized the similarity in techniques between dog training and child rearing. Time outs, rewarding the good behavior, consequences for bad behavior, ignoring attention seeking behavior and not making a big deal over getting scared or hurt.
I had such a great time and really enjoyed myself, but never knew I would walk away learning something about my profession. Not having kids, I never saw the parallels before. I'm sure those of you that have dogs and kids are reading this thinking... DUH! But it was a huge moment for me to understand that even though I didn't have to have a huge amount of experience with kids, I had all the tools I needed.
There are of course differences in the application of the techniques, for instance, I didn't squirt my nephew with a water bottle for touching something he shouldn't, that to me is when it was easier because I could actually tell him no and he understood the word! Having the ability to talk to my nephew and explain this is wrong or that was good was something out of the usual for me. Even though I talk to my dog all the time, I know he doesn't understand. So, it was nice to be understood!:)
So to all you parents and dog owners, my hat is off to you. I have no idea how you can handle training dogs AND raising children at the same time. And thank you to my nephew for being such a cute and amazing teacher of life to me.
Happy Monday!
