Obedient

My dog and went to an almost two hour evaluative session at a trainer today. Is this the way I want to train him? While there, I was very well trained to think it was the answer, but I'm very susceptible. Going straight from the dog trainer to my parents' house, I still had the confidence mask on from dog training and when my dad tried to intervene (well intended but all the usual gobbldy gook); I gave him the verbal "NO" I normally reserve for my dog. I spent the rest of the night correcting my father's dog-spoiling behavior. Having the self-training fresh in my mind also helped  me with my own therapy work, since the emotional fence was up and what it lacked in strength it made up for in height. My parents still pried into everything I tried to leave outside their knowledge base, but like my dog, I made some awkward but progressive steps in keeping things outside their knowledge base. They really don't accept the "I don't want to talk about it/tell  you" cues that work for most of humanity. My mother always says strangers tell her their life stories for no apparent reason. Her prying, nudging gestures amid a pronounced and purposeful silence might have something to do with it. I like extracting people's stories, too, but it's good to remember/know that it's not always because people are so desperate to talk or tell us--we egg  them on, consciously or not.

Another fun moment with the parents: my mom told a story about something that happened in the past few weeks. My dad jumped in to say the exact opposite happened. My mother remembered an extremely different course of events. I'm sure my father was right because, I'm finally fully aware, my mom doesn't always remember reality. Years and years and years of assuming I was the crazy one! I may have some of the crazy too, but I don't trust perception to be anything more than perception. The other day I was using the analogy of colorblindness, and it's funny because my mom knows she's terrible at color and yet she still argues and insists she's right in any color-based decision.

So me, coming back from being strong and dominant all night, instead of being energized or encouraged, I can't fight this sinking discomfort, that (at least the extreme version of the dog part) is too much. It's the black-and-white shit again. I'm never supposed to pet him unless he "earns" it. When my dog bit a person, I should have "beaten the shit out of him." My dog was beaten enough already, thank you. The other dogs at this place just sat there perfectly until told to move to another spot. Can I have a dog who won't bite my friends without having to make him sit on nails?

We have a choke collar and strict instructions. My strict will never be the trainer's snapped German instructions (odd language choice with no accent and mostly Polish coworkers), but I'm starting to think I want to check out a few other local trainers...I'm naturally resistant to some of the harshness necessary to train my dog, but there may be more bugging me about this guy than just that.