The Dog Whisperer and Teaching: Part I

I love dogs.*  I often spend my breaks at school Google imaging "Beagle puppies," then "French Bulldog puppies," then "puppies with mustaches," then "all the puppies ever." I make up long, intricate, non-rhyming songs and sing them to my parents' dogs. I go to the dog park near my house, even though I don't have a dog.  I'm like the creepy man at playgrounds who  doesn't have a child.

I love dogs so much that I watch TV shows about them.  My favorite is The Dog Whisperer.  In case you do not have a television or your cable bundle lacks Animal Planet (heresy!), let me tell you what The Dog Whisperer, whose real name is Cesar Milan, does.  Cesar takes house calls from families with terrible dogs, flies across the country to meet with them, shows them what they (the humans!) are doing that is causing their dogs to behave terribly, and then shows them how to fix it. 

This weekend I watched an episode where this couple had a psycho Cocker Spaniel named Justice, which is funny in itself. Justice was super protective of the lady, but would bite the man and go completely berserk at random times.  Cesar flies across the country (I think the Pacific Northwest? They looked like they possibly made their own granola) to meet with the couple, and the first thing he says is, "You are training your dog that his behavior is OK."  The man pipes up, "No, no, no," insisting that the dog is crazy because the wife is too soft with him, and he DEFINITELY doesn't support his dog's behavior.  But Cesar gently points out that, by letting Justice walk in front of him, speaking to Justice in a high voice, and by petting Justice when he's being crazy "to calm him down," the man is actually saying in dog language, "Justice, I like you as a psycho Cocker Spaniel, and I would like you to stay as crazy as possible, please." The man has an aha moment and accepts Cesar's help.  The show then ends with some line that made me snort about how "Justice has prevailed."

 I love the show for the following reasons:

1) Dogs!

2) IT IS EXACTLY LIKE TEACHING.

Stay tuned.  Over the next few posts, I will explore the similarities between the world of Cesar Milan and the world of teaching. This will either lead to you and me being able to laugh together or will land me on national news as the story "Heartless Middle School Teacher Compares Students to Dogs."

Love,

Teach

*I also love cats, but they make my left eyeball swell to twice its normal size and my voice drop about three octaves.