It's surprising all that having a dog in our family has brought up.
The main one for me is the return to that word that strikes fear of failure in my heart as a mother: consistency! Ah, the one thing that I have not!
I love the freedom to do one thing one way on a certain day and another way on another day.
With children you can explain, 'today we didn't do the dishes after dinner because we had to go to homegroup but I am going to do them in the morning.' Or, 'you can finish your math tomorrow because we have guests coming over and I want you to clean the living room.'
Especially now that the kids are older, they get it. (They work it when they can get away with it, but they understand.)
But with a dog, well, I've tried explaining...yes, I have. It doesn't work.
OH...and if you try to tell the dog, 'Sorry that I slept in, can you just hold it for another hour?' well that doesn't work either.
The other half of this, (well to be realistic 4/5ths), is that we all have to do the same things. So I am not just training a dog, but we are training a family to train the dog. So if one child says 'stop it' and another says 'quit' and a couple of us say 'down' but we are all requiring the same response from the dog it gets a bit confusing. We have to make sure we are all using the same word and requiring the same action.
Another thing that it brings up is the difference in 'parenting' styles that my husband and I have. Something that having a 'toddler' brings front and center rather quickly and succinctly.
My husband likes to put it this way, "You think every little thing is going to hurt their psyche and I know that they don't have a psyche!" This is his tongue-in-cheek overview of our way of looking at it.
All in all, we love our new dog and that consistency is paying off, just like it has with the kids. In a lot of ways having a dog has brought our family together in ways I didn't foresee at all, and for that I am thankful.
6 comments:
I am so happy you became a dog person. I would have never guessed how much you would take action on training and working with him and it makes me realize even more how blessed I am to have such a great woman. Love yah Doug
Yay! We are sooo happy you guys have a dog!! They bring so much love and fun to a household. You guys are doing a great job with him, he's a very lucky boy to have ended up with you guys :)
A picture speaks a million words- look at the look on Naoini's face ! I'm so happy you've brought a dog into your family- they can bring such happiness, and they never hold a grudge.
Yes, consistancy is never ending, but it does get easier.
Love you,
Mom, Karen
That's great Autumn, sounds like a nice motivator to get consistent! Maybe it's your years of praying answered, through, who would have thought, a dog! I like Doug's comment too.;)
Hey, You're writing again! (something I keep meaning to do!)
I hope lots fo good for your family will continue to come from having your dog!
Nice to hear the happenin's at your house. :) I forgot you got a dog. Nice to see a picture. Love!
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