JANUARY 2010 TIP OF THE MONTH
Welcome to the New Era
Over the holidays, we went with our teenagers to the movies. Not because we are avid film goers, but because it is a short time until we won’t have them around to see movies together. We watched the new film Avatar, which actually offers a lot to dog trainers, but that’s not the point here. As the clips of other movies were shown, along with clips of soon to be released movies dancing explosively off the screen, I could have sworn I was sitting on the couch as my son was playing Call of Duty or whatever the latest war/killing video game is.
Okay, we don’t qualify as anything close to young any longer. We come from the day when Gilligan’s Island, Hogan’s Heroes and Mash were the thing to be seen on a TV screen. We can’t seem to get this high speed, super action, loud, fast, devastating and absolutely constant action type entertainment. Two things struck me as I pondered what I had just watched and waited for my hearing to return. I watched a Holy War against aliens that looked and acted remarkably like Native American Indians of the earlier centuries in which the action was nonstop. Life forces moved from human bodies to alien bodies and back, helicopters could fly anywhere through anything and these big android type machines could shoot, punch or kill with nothing standing in their way. There were the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’ and the destruction of the planet and its people was ongoing.
At least 250 things died as I watched, maybe more, but I couldn’t keep looking. Death was everywhere. People were torn apart; the aliens and alien animals were stabbed, shot or blown to smithereens. And it all happened so fast I couldn’t be sure what I was seeing. The stimulation of everything was too much, noise, visual action, mental action, horrific bad things like killing, suffering, bleeding and terrorizing filled almost every moment. I am WAY too simple of a creature for that. In the end, the best of the good buys remained alive and got the girl. The worst of the bad guys got drilled in the chest and appropriately died a hideous death. It kind of ended in a traditional Disney fashion with good prevailing… until of course the next time.
So I now understand that many people, who can take all this in - at the speed at which it is dished out, are also training their dogs. People who think watching portrayals of animals die awful, gory deaths by the hundreds – go home to feed the dog. People whose minds are accustomed to quick in- quick out and resolve in an instant – are expecting to develop their animal's behavior over time.
My kids tell me it doesn’t affect them the way I think. However, as I ask them the second or third question about it, I find I have lost their attention as this conversation is rather boring. I guess if I screamed or ranted or threatened I might hold their attention a little longer, but I won’t do that. I just watch them mentally sublimate to another world and other more compelling thoughts than my irritating questions. My kids come from multiple generations of animal trainers. Do I think for a moment either of them would or even could do this? Highly doubtful. Though they may possess the genetics, they have not, at least yet, gathered the ability to be patient, remain focused and place their attention on something besides their own satisfaction or entertainment.
I think about the remarkable animal trainers I have personally known; Cesar Milan on television and the things that go on at our own training facility. Nothing those people do, nothing I do – is remotely related to what makes today’s entertainment entertaining. I guess training or working with animals is boring, because nothing blows up. Nothing dies. Nothing screams or runs in fear. It is a matter of placing awareness quietly somewhere and then paying attention. It requires silent thought and intuition and subtle responses to even subtler cues. I have been lured into some discussion and debate with much younger folks about training techniques, and it always comes down to the same thing. Things can be done with quick understanding and by doing it a few times. They don’t understand earning stripes and spending time with their mouths shut just learning. They don’t realize that you are never the expert you think you are, and once you begin even a chance in that realm, you realize how much you don’t know, and you become even quieter. Even so, apparently things happen much more rapidly in their world, and they get to the end far more quickly then all the grand folks that came before them. They figure it out and have all the answers, just like the over-simplified and false entertainment that pervades everything.
I spend the majority of my time in the world of the dogs. I look into their eyes more than I look into the eyes of humans. In their eyes, I do not see the changes I see elsewhere. They are still what they have always been; simple creatures, direct, honest, patient and trusting. They are entertained by purpose and exploration and relationship. They do not expect things to be over in a convenient time; they don’t get ‘convenience’ or ‘quickly’ .They exist (just as the aliens in the film did) in synchrony with nature and the natural movement of the day, the animals, the wind and the sun. They read body language and read minds if the mind is focused enough on one thing to be decipherable. Dogs know the barometric pressure is changing without having to give it a name; they know when the time is right for little animals to unearth themselves after the cold, and they know when someone is paying little or sporadic attention to them. They accomplish this canine wisdom by single minded awareness and patience.
I wonder what my job would be like if I had to be constantly stimulated, entertained and things had to hold my attention or it would move quickly on. I’d have to do something different because I’d never get anywhere with the dogs. I don’t know how easy it is going to be for the dogs to fit into this new way of doing things…
All the ‘older folks’ will email me and talk about their agreement. The younger folks will think, “I didn’t know she was that old!” and decide to look for more meaningful sources of information. Gosh, we need more dogs just to keep people a little grounded in what this is all about. Go take a nice winter walk with your Buddy, remind yourself of what I’m talking about here. May 2010 be a very good year for every reader! |
