I know this seems overwhelming, but everything new to us initially is overwhelming. Remember you are learning a foreign language, one you don't know at all, a language that takes time to learn. PLEASE don't compare yourself with me or some ideal of yourself. Do your best, breathe, relax, smile and you will see amazing things occur between you and your dog by the end of these 10 weeks. Weeks 3 & 4 are a LOT of new material. By Week 5, training takes on a rhythm and a flow that makes sense and everything becomes easier.
Right now, that is not so. For instance, there are those individuals, the 4%'rs I call them in life. You know, the ones that learn it quickly, easily, with little effort, and fail to understand why everyone else doesn't learn as fast or quick or as well as they do. Somehow, mystically, magically, they just seem to get 'it' whatever the 'it' is they need to get. I am NOT a 4%'r in life. Then, there are the rest of the population, what I call the 96'rs in life. Sigh, they work, they struggle, they do things bass akwards (and consistently so!) and it seems as if they have to work EXTRA HARD to learn a new subject and master that subject well. I am a 96%'r in life and especially as it pertains to the mechanics of dog training. (I don't dance well either so there is that flaw within my not so coordinated body.)
What I have had to do to learn these mechanics well enough to teach is mind-boggling. It took learning the mechanics, then dreaming the mechanics, then practicing the mechanics with "Fido" my invisible dog over and over and over and then over again. So, I teach from a 96%'r perspective. Was the struggle, the effort, and the time spent worth the journey? Yes, it was as dog training teaches you much about yourself (more about that in the future) and sometimes what you see in yourself is not what you want to see or like. So, I have grown in leaps'n'bounds, internally, just because of the struggle to learn these mechanics.
I know it feels odd or weird or uncomfortable. It will be like that for most of the Novice classes. Then, one day, when you least expect it, you will have a moment of "Ah - ha!" and you'll get 'it'. It will feel right and you will know it. Hang on, get used to feeling discombobulated (my word for mixed up), please, please, please- relax, breathe, smile at yourself and know this journey is worth the effort and is a journey, when you look back, you will marvel at how wonderful it has all been. But one day at a time, one step at a time. I'm here, I'll help you, you'll get 'there'. If I can learn this, AND LOVE IT, so do can you.
Are you a 4%'r or a 96%'r?
Smiles, Roxanne
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