Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Now that I have almost completed all of my hours I figured I would take some time to reflect and talk a little about what Ive learned/experienced. I believe that all of had something in the last few months that has completely changed the way we think/do/see things in life and I believe that is exactly what volunteering is all about, that being said I have learned to become a lot more patient, it wasn't a huge weakness before but improvement is never a bad thing. Working with dogs that still quite young and have little to no human interaction, let alone training is always in interesting and sometimes entertaining experience. It is definitely something that will test your patience and may even question your mental strength to stick to your goal(mine was to get these to simply acknowledge my existence and follow simple commands). It wasn't easy a lot of the time, especially on a Friday evening after an extremely long week. All I wanted to do was play with them but that is quite difficult when they don't know how to "fetch" let alone "sit" and "stay". So I started from the beginning, implementing some techniques I have learned through the years from my mentors and highly regarded experts. Positive reinforcement is my absolute favorite because the dogs easily catch on and they actually enjoy it. It easily gains their attention and isn't hard to keep them focused when they know praise, toys and treats are to come for doing something good/right. Its such a good feeling to start to teach a dog "sit" and then come back a week later and see they're attention immediately go to you as soon as you touch your treat pocket and say their name, and it puts the biggest smile on your face when you say that magical word, "sit" and watch them hear it, comprehend it, and slowly but surely, sink that butt into the ground..YAY! :) Such a small step, but when potential adopters come in and are looking for a new dog and see that one can sit on command it only makes that dog's chances of a forever home even greater, and THAT is what really matters. forever home<3
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This is awesome! I am considering on getting a puppy, of course rescuing then from a shelter! The only thing standing in my way is that I am not sure what my schedule will be like when I transfer school in the fall. I am going to be living at home however I am also going to be working (to pay for things, perhaps the dog), obviously going to school, and getting adjusted to a new environment. My goal over the next year is to work, work, work, get good grades, and more work in order to get my own place WHERE i will have my own dog!
ReplyDeleteI do not if I feel bad about getting my do from a pet store. I know about all the dogs in shelters and how they need homes. I think my parents were worried about a shelter dog being unstable or something like that. I now think that they were wrong about that.
ReplyDeleteEven though we did completely different kinds of service, I can relate to how the service has positively affected my life. There were a few days that didn't go exactly according to plan, or something irritated me. I didn't let these little things get to me and still enjoyed doing the service.
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