Breakthrough

The other day a puppy changed somebody's life. I know this absolutely, down to the cells in my bone marrow - because I saw a boy kiss a dog.

Not just any boy, but a juvenile offender convicted of a violent crime. We'll call him Billy - obviously, not his real name. Billy had told us, his teachers, that his previous experience with dogs involved pit fighting. He had said that to him, dogs were "valuable" because of the money he could earn when his dogs won their fights.

These kids - called kids even though some of them are over 18 - have seen and done some pretty awful stuff. For the most part, we don't know and we don't want to know why they are incarcerated. We (the instructors) are there (at the jail) to teach these kids dog training skills. This is most effective if we work with the kids in front of us - who they are now, not who they were or what they did.

Of course, they learn much more than "just" dog training skills. They learn how to be creative and to experiment - and fail - safely. They learn how to hold their bodies and use equipment properly. They learn successive approximation ("baby steps" to shaping a finished behavior), reward strategies, and positive reinforcement. They learn, through application, the value of bonding, consistency and fairness. They learn trust, and patience. And, they learn non-violent problem solving - how cool is that? All while on one end of a leash, developing a relationship with a member of another species.

So how does someone go from betting on dogfighting to kissing a dog? I have no clue. It was a private moment observed by chance, I doubt Billy even knows I saw it. I would ask the dogs to tell me their secrets, but I have a feeling it's dog magic, and we humans couldn't do it anyway. Sometimes, that magic leaves me profoundly moved.