“Obedience is really just getting your dog to trust your judgment more than its own.”  Wally Wimmer, Last Straw Dog Training

Heartsong Pets continues toward developing therapy dogs to bless our community!  Our heart desire is to help our pets honor the intent of St. Francis of Asissi when he said, “Preach the Gospel at all times–and if necessary, use words.”  Below you will find an overview of the steps we are following to help our dogs.  But I can’t help but see how it relates to walking out a life of faith.

For me, learning to obey the commands of God is exactly the same.  The Word of God is a loving letter of instruction from our Heavenly Father.  He never makes rules to hear Himself talk or rob of us of pleasure.  God gives rules that we might understand what His heart looks like.  We will never understand until we choose to obey.

The privilege and power of choice is easily overlooked.  As parents, our job is to offer choices to our children that are fit for their maturity level.  Our goal is that they will learn to exercise their right to choose with wisdom that comes along with increased knowledge.  Children who never learn to think for themselves and exercise choice become adults who are easily led astray.  Treasuring choice actually leads us to obedience.  God gave choice to humanity because it is the only path to fully understanding the greatness of God.

Choice is a divine privilege.  Robbing humanity of choice is the work of the devil.  There is an interesting dynamic of evil that hides itself well.  The temptation to reject restraint actually leads to total bondage.  Addiction is the perfect example.  Choosing to drink or drug is a decision each individual can make…stopping becomes increasingly harder.  Choosing not to surrender to God is a choice one can make…but the sound of His loving call becomes fainter with each step away.   The arms of God remain open to all who will heed His call to come, though!  The option to choose God remains as long as His breath is in our body!

Obedience to His call is trusting Him more than we trust ourselves.  

Heartsong Pet – Training Session One

• Teach the name as a command.  When the name is called, the response should be immediate.
• No is also a critical command.  Clear instruction when a behavior is not desired matters.
• Sit is a command that becomes an efficient ‘base of operations’ for later commands.
• Nap (rest or wait) is a command that assists with impulse control.

Session Two will focus on playing together…fun, productive games to build bonds with our pet pals!