Forming Good Habits
I began training dogs at 9 years of age. My parents felt it was better for my health and safety after my dairy heifer dragged me around the show arena. I have been forever grateful to Nina, that heifer that I loved so much. Nina joined our dairy string with no more shows in her future.
But it turns out that dog training was about the best path I could take. After many mistakes (sorry Mrs. Thompson, my first dog training leader) I built the habits that made me a pretty good dog trainer, a skill I have used professionally and personally throughout my life.
As any dog trainer knows, crafting a well-trained dog comes down to building good habits. This requires consistency. I train and practice with my dogs daily (with occasional time off) using a variety of methods to ensure the training sticks and the performance is honed to perfection.
Our pastor's wife noted that she thought I applied my dog training to raising children. Thinking about it, she was quite correct. Raising kids is similar to training and modifying people, including children. We build habits by our daily interactions. That philosophy helped my homeschool journey with each of our 9 kids. Teaching is helping them learn and build habits.
Likewise, our website building and the associated tasks are just habits we need to hone and build upon. It doesn't require a college degree. We simply need to know how to learn and then build those habits that ensure progress.
It's not always easy to learn a new habit
Admittedly, it might be easier to teach a dog to sit on command than it is to learn to build a user-friendly website. But the manner is still the same. Start with day one. Practice on day two, three, and onward. Build the habit. Make it happen.
Yes, some find it easier than others. Border Collies usually learn skills faster than Basset Hounds. But I assure you that my son's Bassets learned quite a few commands with his quiet consistency. He just built those habits.
So I encourage people who ask me "how" that it just takes learning and building habits. One step at a time. One day at a time. Perseverance and tenacity are great assistants, for certain. Not all habits come easily. The tech side challenges me more. But others find the writing more of a challenge.
For those needing help writing a post, for instance, I did a simple training on using an outline to write a post.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/writing-a-post-usin...
If you follow this method (or any other, of course) and practice it until it becomes a habit, you will probably find that writing posts becomes easier. Practice to build the habit.
Work harder on building those habits. You can do it. It just takes consistent training. And that falls on you.
And, if you have any questions, remember the WA community, including me, is here to help!
There is no influence like the influence of habit. --Gilbert Parker
Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!
Recent Comments
41
Something aside, when I was a lot younger I used to smoke and drink. Both were attained by Habit, some used accustomed to, get used to or plane be like others. Anyway you looked at it was a Habit that was a habit that had to be broken for me. I was an over achiever an was probably the reason I stated. 25 to 30 years I was able to release myself of those habits and form new habits of none to both. I feel off the wagon early on occasions but returned to the new habit. I am in much better shape today at 79 than I was at 45. Habits are more important to our lives than many recognize.
Edward
My parents had a similar experience with habits. They both smoked from their teens (they grew up next door to each other) and the year they turned 50, they both quit, cold turkey- so to speak. They decided to quit right before Thanksgiving. What a holiday season it was that year, but I was so proud of them for having the strength and fortitude to quit after so many years. Neither ever smoked again.
(I'm a proud daughter!)
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Hi Diane
An excellent post. Thank you.
I'm no expert with dogs nor as a dog trainer. However, I spent enough time looking after a young upstart German Shepherd (on my own) to have realised that the dog training challenge was first of all a dog trainer challenge. I had to develop my own good habits first (also from an instructor) in order to behave consistently enough with Rocky for him to be able to develop his own.
Funny enough, in the process of learning with a Portuguese trainer, he learned to respond to both English and Portuguese instructions. So for simple instructions that I taught him, he learned 2 words for each expected response (such as 'sit' and 'sente'). He often responds instantly to whichever instruction is given, whereas I have to translate Portuguese to English in order to make sense of it!
Your comments on developing habits are very sound (one of my pet subjects ... whoops, sorry, no pun intended).
:-)
Richard
Thank you, Richard. And you are so right. My first trainer who became a very dear friend of mine over the years, often said that she could train any dog (and she could!) but the difficult part was training the person. It didn't take long to realize how right she was.
I love that your dog was bilingual! I've noted over the years of training that animals seem to pick up language much quicker than most humans. It's interesting!
Of course, Rocky is simply reacting to a familiar sound. what surprised me was that he seems to be able to hear either of 2 sounds and responds appropriately whichever he hears. That only works for a small number of words though ... perhaps a dozen or so. But it's fun showing off a little :-).
Richard