The Pinch Collar of God

Most of you know that we acquired a Black Lab in July: Syrah the Mighty (See left). One of the many joys having her in our lives is the discovery that she is not all that well trained. She sits right enough and I have even gotten her to lay a bit, but the stay and general calmness are not there. Cute in a 10 pound ball of fur. Not so cute in a 75 pound energetic thunderbolt that will bowl you over - and then lick your face afterwards.

My solution (as is my solution to all things was, say it with me, buy a book. So I bought two (my mother got me one as well - apparently I looked as lost as I felt). I've got something of a training plan together.

And then we came to the second part: actually training her - which is ongoing in a slow, meandering way, but which made realize that dogs are as trained or untrained as their owners. As I look at myself and read in my books, what I realized is that those owners that trained their dog would have other aspects of self-training in their own lives - not all to the same degree, of course. but more so than those with untrained dogs.

One of the things that made walking the dog more of a pleasure as part of the training program is a pinch collar - a metal collar which freely moves to contract but not to the point of choking, as is equipped with a set of relatively dull metal prongs to remind the dog (trust me, I tried the regular collar for walking first. My arms almost gave out trying to restrain her). We have done some more concentrated work with heeling, and it seems to work: she gets outside the zone, a tug, and she will come back into the zone. The goal, of course, is to get to where the pinch collar is not necessary at all.

And then I realized that I have the same issue. I am constantly trying to run off, do other things, be anywhere I need to be but at God's side, or the place where He would have me. I keep wondering why I feel like I keep getting tugged back to a particular point, reminded of where I need to be and what I need to be about. Now I know - I've my own pinch collar, placed there by the Hand of God Himself. He's training me, and I'm sure He hopes that someday we can move to a regular collar and leash or, glory be, to off leash entirely - that part, I assume, is up to me and how well I am willing to take the training. But training or no, He is there every day with the leash and collar as I walk, making sure I will do what He needs done, not necessarily what I think needs to be done.

I get so frustrated when Syrah won't listening. Does God get as frustrated with me?