The Dog Improvement Manual (aka “Don’t beat yourself up about that naughty dog”)

Things Sudo does well.

1. “No”
2. Sit
3. C’mere
4. Sudo
5. Play
6. Indoor retrieve
7. Cute
8. Walk
9. Eat

Things Sudo does OK.

1. Wait (sometimes, it seems to mean something else)
2. Lie

Things Sudo sucks at.

1. Outdoor retrieve
2. Outdoor “c’mere” to my feet
3. Being quiet in his crate

I’ve been getting super frustrated with him recently. I realise it’s just projection of my inadequacies as a teacher/trainer onto him, so I thought it’d be appropriate to make a list of the things he does well, not-so-well and badly so that I can see that he’s actually not doing that bad. I spend a lot of time focusing on the things he doesn’t do well, and that’s not healthy for anyone.

I’m coming to the conclusion that having a dog is, fundamentally, harder than having a child. The child will eventually understand what you want from it, even if it has a greater propensity to disobey. That being said, I’d still rather have a dog.