Pam Padgett ... teacher
I have been taking my younger dog, Gus, to a class to prepare for him to take a test which is required before he can go through the evaluation process to be a therapy dog. There are several parts in the test, and he must pass all parts.
For one part of the test I need to give the leash to someone else and walk away, out of the dog's sight, for 3 minutes. The trainer suggested telling the dog to "wait" before walking away. The dog needs to stay calm during this time.
Surprisingly, this has been a very hard thing for Gus to do. When I was out of his sight, he would become anxious, sometimes whining and even pulling on the leash trying to go find me. We had been working on this for several weeks, first with me staying gone for only a few seconds and gradually increasing the time. Sometimes he would get through the 3 minutes, but just barely. I could tell this was very hard for him.
Then about a week ago I remembered to pray and ask for wisdom in how to help Gus with this. A concept was given to me that he needed a new command. The "wait" command is already being used for exercises in which Gus can see me. A new command was needed. What was very easy for me to do was to shake my index finger at him and say "I'll be right back".
I started working with Gus right away by putting him in the bedroom, giving the new command, and walking out of the room. At first I stayed right outside the door where I could quickly hear if he whined or see if he came looking for me. Amazingly, he picked up on what the new command
meant very quickly. Before long he would calmly sit or lie down after I
gave the new command until I returned to the room.
A few days later I took Gus to the PetsMart store. The trainer was there. Knowing how hard it had been for Gus to be left when he couldn't see me, she asked if we'd
like to practice this. I handed the leash to the trainer, gave Gus the
new command, and walked away for the 3 minutes. When I returned the
trainer said he had done extremely well, better than ever before.
Each time we practice this, I am so thankful to God for giving me the
wisdom needed to work through this.