You may be aware that I've been doing dog training with my two little dogs. It's really hard work, fascinating and rewarding at the same time. My last blog was about consistency and how important this is with training.
However, there's another key fact which resonates with me too - about manners.
Dogs are dogs and they need to know their place in the pack, you could say it's about boundaries.
One of the first things we learnt is that in a door, or gateway, the dog needs to wait whilst you enter, then follow on command, whilst you close it. All on a lead, without any pulling and in a relaxed manner. Sounds simple - believe me it's not. (Especially, for our very entitled, energetic, mostly Jack Russell boy).
Other examples include walking beside you (as opposed to leading) whilst on the lead. Taking food nicely and 'staying' in a sit or down for a minute. It goes on.
Having good manners is ultimately about respect. Again I've got new appreciation as I feel it's something close to my heart. From the small gestures like always thanking a driver who stops for you at a zebra crossing, to giving credit to teachers who share through their own studies and experience.
This made me think about the yoga tradition and lineage. How modern day yoga as we know today, is largely credited to one man Krishnamacharya, who in 1930's started teaching yoga at the Sanskrit College in Mysore.
Here's a link to a piece about this, by Fernando Pages Ruiz, Yoga Journal, 2007. Ruiz writes of Krishnamacharya and his teachings that he believed yoga was from God and all of his ideas, original or not he attributed to ancient texts or to his guru.
He writes, 'his four most famous disciples—Jois, Iyengar, Devi, and Krishnamacharya’s son, T.K.V. Desikachar—played a huge role in popularizing yoga in the West'.
I feel it is a really important part of the tradition that as yogi's and teachers we respect this and give credit for the things we learn and share with others too. A key message by one of my teachers Dave Charlton, https://www.livingyogamalvern.com/viniyoga
Yoga today is big business, there's a lot of money being made. In London especially, there are so many yoga studios and classes. With so many different offers and discounts.
Even before the days of social media, in one of my old yoga books, published in 2001, Georg Feurerstein writes in The Yoga Tradition, 'body orientated egocentrism is a great danger among hatha-yogins', who can, 'occasionally end up with inflated rather than transcended egos'. Rather sadly this is present in the yoga world as much as any other area of commerce.
So, back to dogs and manners. Turns out we've been learning the skills for The Kennel Club Good Citizen Bronze Award, and might enter the test soon. Mr. Brown and Ziggy have had to learn much better manners.
I will keeping going with the training as they seem to enjoy it too. Special thanks to Sue Evans and all at Alpha Dog Training London for their brilliant instruction.
Have a lovely weekend.
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