I enjoy earning titles with my dogs – that should not be a surprise to anyone who knows me. One of the trick dog organizations I’ve been working with is Do More With Your Dog. Trick training can be extremely beneficial in a number of different ways, which I write about in other posts. I often suggest trick training as an enriching activity to clients.
But I’ve had a bit of a mental block about one aspect of DMWYD. They also offer “specialty titles” some of which are available for a limited time and require very little to earn the title. Now some of the entry level titles that I’ve earned are pretty easy, too. I justify that by saying this is just the foundation for more advanced titles. Seems like these specialty titles are a bit of a money grab, so I don’t pay much attention to them. I’ve got more important things to train.
The other week I came face to face with my prejudice. I’ve been working with a client for many months now. When we started, her dog could barely walk to the end of the block because of his severe anxiety and reactivity. It’s been slow, but they’ve been able to get around the block and occasionally even a second block. At our most recent lesson, she shared that not only did they earn a trick dog title, they also earned a title for walking a total of five kilometers – by walking OVER A MILE at a time! It’s the farthest her dog has ever been able to go, and they did it three days in a row. They worked hard and deserve that title. For them, this was the culmination of almost a year of work, and they’re not stopping.
I am more proud of them for earning a title I used to think was pointless than I am of my own dogs’ titles. They did something she never thought they’d be able to do. It’s not about the number of titles, or about what the title is. It’s about the mountains you climbed.
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