Training Obi, San Diego and what I learned about humans from dog training

Our lives has been pretty busy ever since Obi joined our family!  We had done our research about the Bichon Frise breed and knew it was “high maintenance” in terms of time commitment from the owners.  Obi definitely requires a lot of attention but the last 2 weeks has been a blast!  Obi has enriched our lives and made it especially interesting.  I find myself wanting to spend every minute with him!

I’ve always loved dogs… mostly big dogs and not small dogs.  Kelly was the one who liked the Bichon Frise and I promised that we would get a Bichon first before we got other dogs… The amazing thing is that once I got Obi, I just adore him and don’t care about other dogs anymore!  Obi is the sweetest and cutest thing.  He is like a small stuffed toy.  I do my best to take him everywhere we go.  We took him out during Valentines Dinner and also took him to church today.  (he is really well behaved and just stayed inside his “doggie bag” and slept and kept quiet!”

Here are some pictures:

One of the things I have really enjoyed is training Obi.  We have enrolled at these Saturday morning puppy training classes and they are really fun.  They teach us to use this “clicker” which when you press it, it makes a clicking sound.  You click every time Obi does something good or does the trick.  Afterwards you immediately give Obi a treat.  The whole point of the clicker is to condition the dog to know something good is about to happen every time they hear the click.  The click is better than saying “good dog” because there are too many variations to “good dog”. (for i.e. different voices, different tone, etc, etc).  But the clicker is consistent.  So you are creating a consistent program in the dog’s mind.  It works really well.  So every time Obi hears “Watch”, he knows that if he turns and looks at me, he will hear the clicker and then get a treat.  You do this a few hundreds of times and Obi becomes programmed where every time he hears “watch” he automatically turns to look at me.

I love psychology and stuff to do with the brain, neurons, etc.  Learning how to train a dog made me think about our programming.  Just like how Obi is programmed now to look at me just from a simple clicker and treat, we humans are programmed as well.  How often in our lives do we react to certain situations because that is the way we were “brought up” (programmed).  One of the best self development seminars that I have taken was “Klemmer” and it made me realize the programming that I went through as a kid that held me back.  For me, it was my mom (no fault on her part) telling me that white Caucasians are better speakers than Asians and that Asians can’t compete against them in liberal arts.  But, Asians were better in math and science and that I should focus on math and science.  Because of that programming (hearing it from my mom over and over again) for over 20 years, I resorted to studying something that I hated (math/science) and never felt fulfilled.  It was only after painful and an concentrated effort to “step outside” my comfort zone that I learned the joys of studying liberal arts and the skills to be a good speaker.  Today, most people are surprised and refused to believe that I once was shy and never spoke up in class.. but if you ask many of my friends in high school and even in college… they will tell you it is true.

Last week, I also went with some team members of my to USANA’s San Diego Celebration.  It was a good 2 day event.  I met up with a lot of good friends and my mentor Steve Swartz.  The highlight of the event was that I learned a lot about USANA Sense skin care products and how to use them properly.  They showed clinical tests where wrinkles and even sun damage was reduced after using USANA’s Sense skin care for over a period of 4 months.

Books Read since last time:

1) “Every Man’s Marriage” by Arterbum and Stoeker (Thanks to Josiah Chan for giving me this great book)

Books Currently Reading:

1) “Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How To Correct Them” by Belsky and Gilovich
2) “How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With” by Rutherford and Neil
3) “Good Owners, Great Dogs” by Kilcommons and Wilson

Until next time, God Bless.

Simon