For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 14, 2015

Who knew that it was so easy to train yourself?

It took some doing for me to get the authority in my voice, too. Now my kids do the same thing.

Could be worse, Lizzie. Farley could be a cat. Try making one of those do anything on command.

Sounds like a joke on the Simpsons where they sent the dog to obedience school:Bart: Sit! Sit!Dog walks away while the teacher comes byBart: Take a walk! Play with the other dogs! to teacher As you can see, he obeys all my commands.

My daughter had to train her dogs to obey commands. Even when comes to eating.

It’s an all-too-common error in dog training/handling: giving a command a second time (and third and fourth) without giving a correction. Repeating a command over and over just teaches the dog that your commands have no importance. Also, before issuing a command, the action “sit” must be taught, of course — dogs don’t understand human language by being around it like a baby does. It’s sad when adults make these fundamental mistakes — they should learn some training basics before getting a dog. There’d be a lot fewer dogs in shelters if people did….

A tug upwards on his leash will cause an automatic “sit” reaction. Combine this the command and a reward for performance (such as praise and pats, it doesn’t have to be food) and the dog will learn.

Or she could take a treat and bring it behind his head over his back and he will learn to sit.

Train a cat? Yes, can be done.I had one trained to come running every timethe can-opener was operated!

Love, patience, understanding. Works every time.

Well – that’s how my cat trained me . . .

http://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse/2009/06/16She’s doing better than Michael did.

As my grandmother used to say: “I will be obeyed!”