The Dog Whisperer

I like dogs and dogs generally like me, but I have never owned a dog. Most dogs are so poorly trained and not disciplined at all, that they are more annoying than noble. A well trained dog is a noble creature. God created dogs for his own reasons. Man bred and trained them to fill a number of niches.

I miss Emmy. Emmy was the cocker spaniel that lived downstairs when I lived in Burlington those six months. I miss her owner, Linda, too. We used to chat quite a bit and even shared the occasional beer on the front stoop. Linda had Emmy trained pretty well, but if you know cocker spaniels they are energetic. Emmy was very submissive, and eager for a belly rub, but she also is a jumper, and if she came out to greet me on my way out to the car, I know I would be going to work with a couple of dusty foot prints on my pants.

I liked Emmy. The jumping up is not a big deal, but it isn't my favorite part about Emmy. It is a flaw. Some dogs have issues that I wouldn't want to deal with. They bite. They destroy things. In the country, packs of semi-feral dogs kill livestock. They have to be destroyed. Or do they?

I been watching a TV program on the National Geographic channel. "The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan" is a show kind of in the vein of Barbara Woodhouse, ("No Bad Dogs"), Uncle Matty (Matthew Margolis, "Woof! It's a Dog's Life."). Cesar teaches people how to become pack leaders in order to lead their dogs to live happy fulfilled lives. In the show, Cesar takes dogs that most certainly would have to be destroyed and rehabilitates their owners to take calm confident control of the animal before something bad happens. He often uses his young children in training animals and they trust their dad completely. They lay on the ground and let dogs jump over them. They stand there and let dogs bark at them without crying or retreating. They completely trust their dad. Children are not dogs. Nor are dogs children. Cesar wants dogs to be able to live and thrive in their world. I know he wants the same for his children.

Cesar's formula for dogs is exercise, discipline, affection.

What is the formula for raising children? Many parents now use affection, affection, and affection. Some use the occassional method of screaming at them in the supermarket. Always fun for onlookers. How do those kids turn out? Will they be fit to live in a world with other people?

OK. Now, what if God was trying to make me and you fit into a world where other people can live with us without our creating heartache, trouble and sickness for them? What methods would he use on me? What do you want from Him?

Where do your ways and His ways conflict? I want to do no work, have no discipline and receive God's affection, affection, and affection. But, what if love is more than just affection? What if His love requires God to take me into his world through a program of exercise, discipline, and affection? Can I reject the first two, because I don't find them pleasant at the moment?

Cesar enters the world of dogs to become their pack-leader. He exercises them, he disciplines them, and he is affectionate with them. This holistic program leaps from the love that he has for dogs. Of course, Cesar is a man and has never become a dog.

What if God loved people so much that he decided to become a man? What if this God-man experienced God's exercise, discipline, and affection program from the inside? An interesting thought.

What if, there was a pit bull that had already killed two children? Say the dog was scheduled to die by lethal injection in the morning. If Cesar could become a dog, would he become one? Would he go into the cage with the condemned dog, and start to teach him how to be a perfect dog? Would he take his place when the sun came up and the sentence was executed?

(I just saw that my mood said "jealous". Ha. I was looking for joyful. I just corrected that.)