Training our Inner Obedience

We've been taking dog obedience training with my son and his dog. It is interesting to me to watch someone in their element; someone who is obviously doing what they came here to do. This woman, Carol, has insights into the behavior of dogs that are very "dog whisperer-esque". It's fun to pick her brain and see why she thinks a dog is doing what he is doing. It made me think of two things: One, how enjoyable life is when you are following your soul's purpose through your life purpose and the aura of energy and ease that comes with it. Second, there is a lot we can learn through observation and willingness to simply be silent and SEE.

She was teaching Kaden to not have to chase Diesel when he wants him to come to him. I understood that when Kaden goes after him, Diesel thinks it's a game and he runs. While this is possible, and I thought this is what Carol was going to explain, she instead said that a dog is very intuitive to wanting to please and takes his direction by what a partner (dog or human, or another animal) does. NOT what he commands but by his actions. She told Kaden if he steps towards Diesel, Diesel sees that Kaden wants him to go in that direction and so that's what he does. This ends up in Kaden chasing Diesel , Diesel having a blast and thinking he's doing exactly what his herd is doing. He doesn't understand then why he gets reprimanded.

Putting this into human situations, it would be like following the map on GPS when it tells you to turn when there clearly isn't a turn to make and you end up in a lake and you don't understand why because you did exactly as you were guided to do.

Humans have the ability to reason this out and make a different choice and that is what we are training in our children when we correct and guide, so that they can think things through and make a decision. Dogs instead follow an innate sense and they, since existence, have followed a guiding force of the internal wisdom of the herd. They act in the moment and keep themselves safe by taking cues from the herd.

Now I haven't become a genius on dog behavior by any means, but it made me think how very much we miss because we think we already know. Also because someone or something doesn't act like us and we haven't taken the time to get to know their motivations, their abilities, their thoughts and beliefs, it is easier for us to make judgements based on our own beliefs and emotional involvement, and how it affects us. We are a stupid species indeed to make judgements, especially if we don't have all the facts, to think we know it all, to think we are all that exists, and that our opinions are more valid simply because we believe them to be true. As if any other possibility could not exist! Judgements could have been made on Diesel when I didn't understand his reasoning. He, meanwhile, was eager to please and wanted to follow his inner guidance. Trying to adapt to a world inhabited with humans in the driver's seat!

Perhaps this is why we have so much discord between cultures, between political parties, between families and neighbors. We are too quick to judge, too easy to think we are right without perception, too emotional and judgemental on how it affects us rather than how it affects the whole. How many of us can really make a quality judgement anyway, when we have lived in only one tiny corner of the world our whole lives? Do you really think that qualifies us to make decisions for a whole people?


All of this made me think how very much we miss simply because we already have it in our heads what we think we know about something. How much do we miss of what's right in front of us? Due to expectations, perceptions, biases, prejudices or our own personal desires, we tend to overlook what is obvious and evident in front of us in favor of the more choice image. Therein we lose an amazing gift in living in the present, adapting to a situation as it is, and from learning from it. It is true we make our own movie and we see only what we want to see. When you are insistent on things being how they "should" be, in your mind, you are missing valuable options of possibility of how things ARE. If you can see things as they ARE it gives you the opportunity to see the value that perhaps you haven't seen before, and it also helps you determine the truth of what you want and don't want. Then you can create a new movie.

Perhaps we need a more observant evaluation of what is going on right in front of us. It's amazing what we could learn if we just paid attention through observation and didn't forget our own sense of innate guidance