The Education of a World Class Dog Owner (Part 8)

Continued... As we walked away from the shelter that day we were deeply saddened. Our thoughts and conversation were those of both regrets and hopes. We regretted how things turned out with, Sadie Blue, but we were hopeful to own another dog someday. We determined, right there and then, to be different dog owners the next time. It wouldn't take long before we were consumed with the idea of getting another dog. Once again opportunity would knock and it would come by way of a visit to the local pet store. Our thoughts were to look for a chocolate lab but we became fixated on a pair of American Staffordshire Terriers. In the spur of the moment we purchased an AmStaff and we named him Coco.

As I mentioned before we determined this time would be different and I took on the personal responsibility of becoming the best dog owner I could be. I learned early on there aren't necessarily bad dogs but rather bad dog owners. Therefore, I dug into several books, magazines, blogs, videos and TV shows to educate myself. I read books on dog training and began to explore the boundaries of what you could train dogs to do. Coco was an excellent student and he was highly intelligent. I trained him to do several commands and he picked up new tricks in a matter of minutes. I searched Youtube and watched just about any video I could find on dog training. I also started following Cesar Millan and watched his well known TV series, The Dog Whisperer. I read one of his books entitled, Cesar's Way, and it too was very helpful. I learned several things during this time and in the end I was better fit to be a world class dog owner. To be continued... 

So Long for Now,

Paul Dean
www.ecostaffords.com