Whole Heart: #6 ~ Information

Depriving a horse a desire, so as not to let them win, thus causing us to lose.  "if you do _____ you'll let him wim"....Man, have I heard that a 1000 times over the years.  Mark explains that 'bad' behavior, isn't bad.  It is just the horse trying to comunicate to us his desires or dislikes....it is just information.  How we percieve that information, dictates what we choose do next.  He of course has a few stories of horses to describe the whole...'behavior is just information' thing.  One of which was a horse he bought with some 'problems', and turns out, the behavior disapeared, never to return, the day they dug out 5 large beans from his sheath.  The horse was close to slaughter when Mark found him due to his 'behavior', yet he was in pain, and was just trying to comunicate it to his owners.

This morning I had my own little story of bad behavior = inofrmation.  So we have this puppy, Mondo, who is a chi hua hua/pomeranian mix.  He is 4 mos old.  Since Roxy had parvo on the property last year, we were more than reluctant to let Mondo go outside until he is complete with his shots and more mature in size.  also, there was no one home to let him out during the day.  And it is hard for a small puppy to hold it long times,  so with him being an inside dog anyways, we just put puppy pads on the floor.  He has been really good about using them until a week ago.  "All of a sudden" he started pooping in the living room, about 20ft from the pad.  We got a new brand last week, and thought that might be it? Maybe it smells funny.  We let him in the garage to go out there, he still chose to go about a foot from the pad.  We took his food away, and started to feed him once a day, give him 20 min to eat, and take it away, then take him outside.  again, missed the pad.  So we decided to construct his old puppy pen, and put him in time out, until he 'goes'.  That stinking dog would wait until we let him out, and poop in the living room. He has one more puppy shot to get, and I am paranoid about parvo.....But last night, after watching him in his pen, lonely and pathetic, I decided to let him run around a while.  I lifted the gate, he came out, went 6 inches and hunched.  I said....'oh HELL no" picked him up, and took him out to the garage.  He didn't even look for the pad and started to hunch.....again......'Oh HELL NO!" I picked him up again and took him outside and put him in the shavings that the barn cats poop in.  Do you know that dog sniffed around and went poop! Of course you do, I am the only one stupid enough to not put this together.  So I praised him, and let him run around the house and then put him back in his pen for the night.  When I got up, my husband had already fed him, and there was no new poop in his pen.  So I took him outside, he peed and pooped.  What a GOOD boy!  I let him back in the house.  Right before I left for work, for the first time he hiked his leg on the dust ruffle......a loud scream interupted his pattern before he did the deed, and right then it ocured to me that his testicles are dropping.  And maybe all this 'bad behavior' was just his way of telling me, he is a big boy now, and doesn't need to be treated like a puppy anymore.....and that it is time to get him gelded....I mean neutered!

See, just information.  he wasn't trying to be bad or naughty, or even a filthy pig.  He was just trying to tell us something that he needed us to know.  It is the way we chose to look at the information that assigns a value to it.  I chose to believe, he is just saying.....'hey, dont dogs poop outside?"

Savvy On
Michelle

Whole Heart, Whole Horse by Mark Rashid