Unschooling dogs was: a funny "learning" experience for me
Alison Broadbent
> Well, this must be my opening to ask about unschooling dogs! Yes,I've realized that my dog brought me to AP years before we had our son. I
> it's silly, but I'm really wondering. It seems like most people I
> know who have dogs keep them in cages a lot of the time. And my
> neighbor got a puppy and worked hard to get him on a schedule, which
> is so, ya know, un-AP!
think I'm going to write a book called, "Everything I learned About Raising
a Child I Learned from My Dog". I swear to God, my Gus taught me how to
listen so that I was a so much better mom when the time finally came.
Before we got Gus, I read lots of books about dogs. There were the 'crate
them' books and the 'limit them in the kitchen' books. OK. I set up the
kitchen area w/ a fence and stayed w/ him there during the day. At night I
set up a cozy bed for him in the kitchen and we went to bed. And then the
howling began. Desperate wails. OK, well let's set him up in the bedroom
but in a far corner w/ the fencing. Again with the wailing. OK well I'm
going to do something they say NEVER to do and put him right next to my side
of the bed, right at my head. And off to sleep he went. And that's how he
slept and even though he wasn't house broken for another 4 or so weeks, he
never had an accident while he was sleeping there. They're pack animals and
need to be w/ their pack. Of course you can bring a crate into the bedroom
too if that's what seems best. That's what made me a believer in
co-sleeping. If my dog needs this, why wouldn't a baby need this even more.
About food: we left food out all the time so he could regulate himself which
worked great for him. I do think that a lot is influenced by how he was fed
before he gets to your house so sometimes it might be hard to undo what's
been done.
I'd like to hear more about "unschooling training" w a dog. We went to a
puppy training w/ the yank the chains stuff. I did that for a couple of
months but couldn't continue even though they say it doesn't hurt, it didn't
feel good to do that. I'd love to hear how people do all that without the
yanking. I let him off leash as much as possible and let his natural
tendency to follow take over. Then for the rest of his life he was usually
off leash or on one of those long retractable leashes. He would stay close
if we were in crowds though. We had such an amazing understanding. I swear
he listened to reason. God I miss him.
Alison
Kate Sitzman
I also think a lot of my AP tendencies came from owning a dog. My dog
definitely taught me that there are so many more levels of communication
than verbal ones, and that harsh discipline creates more problems than it
solves (and dissolves trust). It only took swatting my dog once to realize
that it wasn't for me, and that I would never spank my kids.
I don't know if I'd consider it unschooling exactly, but clicker training is
considered to be a very gentle and positive way to train animals.
http://www.clickertrain.com/whatis.html
I haven't tried it myself, but I am planning to try it when we get our next
dog.
Kate
-----Original Message-----
From: Alison Broadbent [mailto:abzb@...]
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 11:14 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] Unschooling dogs was: a funny "learning"
experience for me
think I'm going to write a book called, "Everything I learned About Raising
a Child I Learned from My Dog". I swear to God, my Gus taught me how to
listen so that I was a so much better mom when the time finally came.
Before we got Gus, I read lots of books about dogs. There were the 'crate
them' books and the 'limit them in the kitchen' books. OK. I set up the
kitchen area w/ a fence and stayed w/ him there during the day. At night I
set up a cozy bed for him in the kitchen and we went to bed. And then the
howling began. Desperate wails. OK, well let's set him up in the bedroom
but in a far corner w/ the fencing. Again with the wailing. OK well I'm
going to do something they say NEVER to do and put him right next to my side
of the bed, right at my head. And off to sleep he went. And that's how he
slept and even though he wasn't house broken for another 4 or so weeks, he
never had an accident while he was sleeping there. They're pack animals and
need to be w/ their pack. Of course you can bring a crate into the bedroom
too if that's what seems best. That's what made me a believer in
co-sleeping. If my dog needs this, why wouldn't a baby need this even more.
About food: we left food out all the time so he could regulate himself which
worked great for him. I do think that a lot is influenced by how he was fed
before he gets to your house so sometimes it might be hard to undo what's
been done.
I'd like to hear more about "unschooling training" w a dog. We went to a
puppy training w/ the yank the chains stuff. I did that for a couple of
months but couldn't continue even though they say it doesn't hurt, it didn't
feel good to do that. I'd love to hear how people do all that without the
yanking. I let him off leash as much as possible and let his natural
tendency to follow take over. Then for the rest of his life he was usually
off leash or on one of those long retractable leashes. He would stay close
if we were in crowds though. We had such an amazing understanding. I swear
he listened to reason. God I miss him.
Alison
Yahoo! Groups Links
definitely taught me that there are so many more levels of communication
than verbal ones, and that harsh discipline creates more problems than it
solves (and dissolves trust). It only took swatting my dog once to realize
that it wasn't for me, and that I would never spank my kids.
I don't know if I'd consider it unschooling exactly, but clicker training is
considered to be a very gentle and positive way to train animals.
http://www.clickertrain.com/whatis.html
I haven't tried it myself, but I am planning to try it when we get our next
dog.
Kate
-----Original Message-----
From: Alison Broadbent [mailto:abzb@...]
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 11:14 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] Unschooling dogs was: a funny "learning"
experience for me
> Well, this must be my opening to ask about unschooling dogs! Yes,I've realized that my dog brought me to AP years before we had our son. I
> it's silly, but I'm really wondering. It seems like most people I
> know who have dogs keep them in cages a lot of the time. And my
> neighbor got a puppy and worked hard to get him on a schedule, which
> is so, ya know, un-AP!
think I'm going to write a book called, "Everything I learned About Raising
a Child I Learned from My Dog". I swear to God, my Gus taught me how to
listen so that I was a so much better mom when the time finally came.
Before we got Gus, I read lots of books about dogs. There were the 'crate
them' books and the 'limit them in the kitchen' books. OK. I set up the
kitchen area w/ a fence and stayed w/ him there during the day. At night I
set up a cozy bed for him in the kitchen and we went to bed. And then the
howling began. Desperate wails. OK, well let's set him up in the bedroom
but in a far corner w/ the fencing. Again with the wailing. OK well I'm
going to do something they say NEVER to do and put him right next to my side
of the bed, right at my head. And off to sleep he went. And that's how he
slept and even though he wasn't house broken for another 4 or so weeks, he
never had an accident while he was sleeping there. They're pack animals and
need to be w/ their pack. Of course you can bring a crate into the bedroom
too if that's what seems best. That's what made me a believer in
co-sleeping. If my dog needs this, why wouldn't a baby need this even more.
About food: we left food out all the time so he could regulate himself which
worked great for him. I do think that a lot is influenced by how he was fed
before he gets to your house so sometimes it might be hard to undo what's
been done.
I'd like to hear more about "unschooling training" w a dog. We went to a
puppy training w/ the yank the chains stuff. I did that for a couple of
months but couldn't continue even though they say it doesn't hurt, it didn't
feel good to do that. I'd love to hear how people do all that without the
yanking. I let him off leash as much as possible and let his natural
tendency to follow take over. Then for the rest of his life he was usually
off leash or on one of those long retractable leashes. He would stay close
if we were in crowds though. We had such an amazing understanding. I swear
he listened to reason. God I miss him.
Alison
Yahoo! Groups Links
Jonni-Ann Goulding
OH MY GOODNESS!
That is SO funny because I was just noticing the other day that we unschooled our dogs before we unschooled our children. We went through the same things! Got a new puppy and tried to do the training stuff but crates felt unnatural and as much as people said it would be better for them, I didn't get it. I realized I found myself looking for ways to say yes whenever I could. My dog likes to drink her water with her front paws in the bowl. So we got a bigger more stable bowl because she'd knock over the small one and lose all the water. It was no big deal-the bowl didn't work for her and no she didn't do things like any other dog I'd ever seen but so what?! Who was she hurting by getting her paws wet when she drank? NOBODY! :) And we were all less stressed and happy than if I had tried to teach her to drink without putting her paws in the bowl.
My friend loaned us a book called "how to be a dog's best friend" basically saying if you love your dogs you will discipline them and teach them complete obedience. There are SO many correlations. I just wish what we had done with the dogs just from instinct and being natural, I had done as naturally with my children. I mean how many hours did we sit and fight over workbooks at the kitchen table? When i should have just been looking for a bigger bowl and thinking "no big deal." :)
Anyway, I think the universe is a nifty place because I was just thinking about all of this the other day though i hadn't verbalized it. :)
Thanks for sharing!
Jonni-Ann
mom to two very cool kids and a couple of nifty dogs too
Alison Broadbent <abzb@...> wrote:
think I'm going to write a book called, "Everything I learned About Raising
a Child I Learned from My Dog". I swear to God, my Gus taught me how to
listen so that I was a so much better mom when the time finally came.
Before we got Gus, I read lots of books about dogs. There were the 'crate
them' books and the 'limit them in the kitchen' books. OK. I set up the
kitchen area w/ a fence and stayed w/ him there during the day. At night I
set up a cozy bed for him in the kitchen and we went to bed. And then the
howling began. Desperate wails. OK, well let's set him up in the bedroom
but in a far corner w/ the fencing. Again with the wailing. OK well I'm
going to do something they say NEVER to do and put him right next to my side
of the bed, right at my head. And off to sleep he went. And that's how he
slept and even though he wasn't house broken for another 4 or so weeks, he
never had an accident while he was sleeping there. They're pack animals and
need to be w/ their pack. Of course you can bring a crate into the bedroom
too if that's what seems best. That's what made me a believer in
co-sleeping. If my dog needs this, why wouldn't a baby need this even more.
About food: we left food out all the time so he could regulate himself which
worked great for him. I do think that a lot is influenced by how he was fed
before he gets to your house so sometimes it might be hard to undo what's
been done.
I'd like to hear more about "unschooling training" w a dog. We went to a
puppy training w/ the yank the chains stuff. I did that for a couple of
months but couldn't continue even though they say it doesn't hurt, it didn't
feel good to do that. I'd love to hear how people do all that without the
yanking. I let him off leash as much as possible and let his natural
tendency to follow take over. Then for the rest of his life he was usually
off leash or on one of those long retractable leashes. He would stay close
if we were in crowds though. We had such an amazing understanding. I swear
he listened to reason. God I miss him.
Alison
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That is SO funny because I was just noticing the other day that we unschooled our dogs before we unschooled our children. We went through the same things! Got a new puppy and tried to do the training stuff but crates felt unnatural and as much as people said it would be better for them, I didn't get it. I realized I found myself looking for ways to say yes whenever I could. My dog likes to drink her water with her front paws in the bowl. So we got a bigger more stable bowl because she'd knock over the small one and lose all the water. It was no big deal-the bowl didn't work for her and no she didn't do things like any other dog I'd ever seen but so what?! Who was she hurting by getting her paws wet when she drank? NOBODY! :) And we were all less stressed and happy than if I had tried to teach her to drink without putting her paws in the bowl.
My friend loaned us a book called "how to be a dog's best friend" basically saying if you love your dogs you will discipline them and teach them complete obedience. There are SO many correlations. I just wish what we had done with the dogs just from instinct and being natural, I had done as naturally with my children. I mean how many hours did we sit and fight over workbooks at the kitchen table? When i should have just been looking for a bigger bowl and thinking "no big deal." :)
Anyway, I think the universe is a nifty place because I was just thinking about all of this the other day though i hadn't verbalized it. :)
Thanks for sharing!
Jonni-Ann
mom to two very cool kids and a couple of nifty dogs too
Alison Broadbent <abzb@...> wrote:
> Well, this must be my opening to ask about unschooling dogs! Yes,I've realized that my dog brought me to AP years before we had our son. I
> it's silly, but I'm really wondering. It seems like most people I
> know who have dogs keep them in cages a lot of the time. And my
> neighbor got a puppy and worked hard to get him on a schedule, which
> is so, ya know, un-AP!
think I'm going to write a book called, "Everything I learned About Raising
a Child I Learned from My Dog". I swear to God, my Gus taught me how to
listen so that I was a so much better mom when the time finally came.
Before we got Gus, I read lots of books about dogs. There were the 'crate
them' books and the 'limit them in the kitchen' books. OK. I set up the
kitchen area w/ a fence and stayed w/ him there during the day. At night I
set up a cozy bed for him in the kitchen and we went to bed. And then the
howling began. Desperate wails. OK, well let's set him up in the bedroom
but in a far corner w/ the fencing. Again with the wailing. OK well I'm
going to do something they say NEVER to do and put him right next to my side
of the bed, right at my head. And off to sleep he went. And that's how he
slept and even though he wasn't house broken for another 4 or so weeks, he
never had an accident while he was sleeping there. They're pack animals and
need to be w/ their pack. Of course you can bring a crate into the bedroom
too if that's what seems best. That's what made me a believer in
co-sleeping. If my dog needs this, why wouldn't a baby need this even more.
About food: we left food out all the time so he could regulate himself which
worked great for him. I do think that a lot is influenced by how he was fed
before he gets to your house so sometimes it might be hard to undo what's
been done.
I'd like to hear more about "unschooling training" w a dog. We went to a
puppy training w/ the yank the chains stuff. I did that for a couple of
months but couldn't continue even though they say it doesn't hurt, it didn't
feel good to do that. I'd love to hear how people do all that without the
yanking. I let him off leash as much as possible and let his natural
tendency to follow take over. Then for the rest of his life he was usually
off leash or on one of those long retractable leashes. He would stay close
if we were in crowds though. We had such an amazing understanding. I swear
he listened to reason. God I miss him.
Alison
Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT
---------------------------------
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To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unschoolingbasics/
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
---------------------------------
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]