Education
Breeders say :
"Whippets are good dogs for beginners, easy to train...they are like kids !"
'Whippets are good dogs for beginners' : right.
They are the least biting dogs according to the statistics.
Does that make them good learners ?
'They are like kids' : right ... and ... vice versa.
We live with whippets. And we work with teenagers.
As mammals, we function very much alike.
Here are some examples :
Whippets love cuddles.
Kids love compliments.
Whippets are good learners when they are rewarded for what they do well (and not punished for what they can't do or -more likely - don't want to do.)
Kids are brilliant when they are told each time what they are doing well.
I wouldn't like being told I'm an idiot from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, I definitely think I could bite someone's ear at 4:01 !
Whippets (dogs in general) need to know and to respect the 'NO' word. This means that as a master you'll do your best to educate them, it doesn't mean that they will be turned into circus dogs - whippets don't run that kind of risk !
Kids do need to know and to respect limits. Yet, it's funny to see how a very few of them totally ignore this concept. On hearing the 'NO' word, they look at you as if you were a funny-little-puffin-speaking-in-Tongue. Thus, you have to repeat this magic word in a deep and threatening voice (That tiger voice makes you feel really good.) Well now, you can be satisfied for they look at you as if you were no more a funny-little-puffin-speaking-in-Tongue but as if you were a funny-little-puffin-speaking-in-Tigerrrr ! Grrrr !
That's much better, isn't it ?
Whippets, when off-leash, get easily bored and don't really like to follow their humans (see Hunting.)
Bored kids are a nightmare : their vital need for interactions makes them go in any direction, the classroom gets noisy, which means shame on you - your colleagues will tell that you are a baaaaaaaad teacher, with absolutely noooooooo authority.
This idea gives gooseflesh, it's far creepier than the scariest Stephen King's novels !
So, you have to be here & now, active & interactive !
Whippets are very sensitive and their brains can just stop functioning if they can feel your stress.
Likewise, teenagers need to feel that you are confident, and that they can rely on you. If you are stressed, they are likely to over-react and you will probably get the opposite reaction than the one you were looking for.
Eventually, it's strange (but true) to say that our whippets really taught us how to be fairer, quieter and more interactive teachers than the stressed and dull ones we used to be ! Yet, we still have a long way to go ...
"Whippets are good dogs for beginners, easy to train...they are like kids !"
'Whippets are good dogs for beginners' : right.
They are the least biting dogs according to the statistics.
Does that make them good learners ?
'They are like kids' : right ... and ... vice versa.
We live with whippets. And we work with teenagers.
As mammals, we function very much alike.
Here are some examples :
Whippets love cuddles.
Kids love compliments.
Whippets are good learners when they are rewarded for what they do well (and not punished for what they can't do or -more likely - don't want to do.)
Kids are brilliant when they are told each time what they are doing well.
I wouldn't like being told I'm an idiot from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, I definitely think I could bite someone's ear at 4:01 !
Whippets (dogs in general) need to know and to respect the 'NO' word. This means that as a master you'll do your best to educate them, it doesn't mean that they will be turned into circus dogs - whippets don't run that kind of risk !
Kids do need to know and to respect limits. Yet, it's funny to see how a very few of them totally ignore this concept. On hearing the 'NO' word, they look at you as if you were a funny-little-puffin-speaking-in-Tongue. Thus, you have to repeat this magic word in a deep and threatening voice (That tiger voice makes you feel really good.) Well now, you can be satisfied for they look at you as if you were no more a funny-little-puffin-speaking-in-Tongue but as if you were a funny-little-puffin-speaking-in-Tigerrrr ! Grrrr !
That's much better, isn't it ?
Whippets, when off-leash, get easily bored and don't really like to follow their humans (see Hunting.)
Bored kids are a nightmare : their vital need for interactions makes them go in any direction, the classroom gets noisy, which means shame on you - your colleagues will tell that you are a baaaaaaaad teacher, with absolutely noooooooo authority.
This idea gives gooseflesh, it's far creepier than the scariest Stephen King's novels !
So, you have to be here & now, active & interactive !
Whippets are very sensitive and their brains can just stop functioning if they can feel your stress.
Likewise, teenagers need to feel that you are confident, and that they can rely on you. If you are stressed, they are likely to over-react and you will probably get the opposite reaction than the one you were looking for.
Eventually, it's strange (but true) to say that our whippets really taught us how to be fairer, quieter and more interactive teachers than the stressed and dull ones we used to be ! Yet, we still have a long way to go ...