I have some thoughts about Oscar that I will save for A Wandering Line, but for now, as an update, let me just say that we are having housetraining issues. This is more galling than ever now that I know that Oscar's kennel-mate in his past life is, according to the new owner "100% housetrained." Ugh! How is that fair?!
Last night I got some tips from the "behavioural guru" at PAWS, and we're trying them out. They involve me keeping Oscar on a leash (and therefore in my sight-line) at all times, and when that is not possible, putting him in his crate. I'm not sure which of us likes this less. At home he kept looking at me like, "Aren't you going to take this leash off me yet?" Here at work (yep! I'm blogging at work!) I have to keep putting him in his crate if I go out of the room to get a cup of tea or make photocopies. I also have to bring his crate, which is a bit unweildy, and since I have to bring my own laptop to work, too, is just one extra thing to cart around on a daily basis.
The thing about this is that it's discipline--both for me and for him. The goal is to get him to stop urinating indoors, but in order to get him to make that discipline a lifestyle, I also have to discipline myself, though sometimes I'd rather just get lazy and let him run around and deal with it later. But I don't really want to deal with it later, of course. I just want him to be perfect already. I fear I do that with people, too--including myself.
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I was going to rant about the often inept parents of my students. But then I realized that this is also true of myself, sometimes, as a dad, and also a teacher:
There are so many times that disciplining, in the short run, is so much more work than either doing it myself or coping with the undesirable behavior.
It's easy, in these instances, to blind ourselves to the real act of neglect we're engaged in, I guess because it's not natural to see discipline as the good and necessary thing it is.
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