Things my dog makes me think about part 3
Tofu is now almost 9 months and I am slowly settling into the life of being a dog mom. I find myself thinking about my dog a lot (missing him) and looking forward to returning home just to see his excited face. I find myself worrying about him when I leave him at home and my phone is filled with photos of Tofu.
He is almost fully grown in terms of size, and I find myself thinking back to just a couple of months ago when Tofu was only 3 lbs as small pupper. He is fully potty trained and we are actually in the process of transitioning him away from pee pads and only to the fake grass pad outside since he can hold in his pee longer now. It makes me think about the cruel days of potty training.
This is what made me start thinking about how amazing it actually is to be able to communicate with my dog.
See, there are many different languages in the world and sometimes you don’t speak the same language as someone else but you are still able to communicate. It’s the same with dogs except they REALLY don’t speak your language, like at all, nothing even close to it, yet they are still able to understand you.
When Tofu barks, I have no idea what he’s saying. I can only tell by the tone if he is happy or sad. If he paws at something I may understand to open it or that he wants it. But Tofu knows verbal commands like sit, wait, down, roll over, etc. It sounds so simple and basic but flip the situation around – if Tofu barks, do I know what to do?? Nope. That’s why I think he is pretty amazing and I extend this to all animals and pets who are able to be trained by a human.
Another thing Tofu has made me think about is patience. I’m not the most patient person – in fact I would consider myself quite impatient since I get frustrated or annoyed easily when things don’t go my way. But one thing I’ve learned while trying to train Tofu is to be patient. Instead of continuously repeating my command and getting angry at him for not understanding, I find that giving him some time to figure out what it is I want him to do is actually quite effective. He will try different things in attempt to get my treat or my attention and it is not until he does the correct action (ex. sitting and not barking), will I start talking or moving again.
And now I see the results of my training. There are many things Tofu still needs to work on but I always feel so proud of him on things he has learned so far. I’ve never owned a dog or a pet before him, so I surprise myself when I realize just how much I love this animal and surprisingly, how many things he has taught me.
Sincerely, Loewe