It goes all the way back to puppyhood when he was in the puppy version of the terrible twos. The best example of this in our own home is Jackson’s “bad” habit of stealing things from our living room side tables when he wants to play with me. This means that you might be teaching your dog to do things that you do not want her to do, entirely by accident. Now this is the important part: your dog is watching your actions and learning from repetition whether you want him to or not. Repetition is the reason why my dogs know that the act of me checking to make sure the back door is locked does not necessarily mean that I want them to do anything, but the act of me checking to make sure the back door is locked paired with grabbing a dog treat from the counter means that they are going into their crates. Repetition is what has those lyrics stuck in my head when the directions were gone the moment my husband spoke them. As for the dog treats, I suppose that is an outlier from these examples because dog treats are on my shopping list all the time. I have sung that song hundreds of times in the last thirty or more years, correcting myself when I made a mistake I have only heard the driving directions from my hubby once. It is through this exact method that I can sing you the complicated lyrics of a song like Jungleland but I cannot repeat the directions my husband just told me on how to get from location A to location B or remember to pick up some Fruitables for the dogs. Nearly every training article you will read about dogs mentions the importance of repetition anytime you want to teach your dog something. That reason is repetition, repetition, repetition. The same reason I know all of the special nuances I am listening to the live version of a song is the same reason the dogs know where to turn to head for home when we go for a walk. The same reason I knew the words to nearly every single Springsteen song is the same reason my dogs know that when I put certain shoes on my feet it means that I am taking them outside versus going somewhere without them. “How on earth can I remember every single word to a massive catalog of songs with super complicated lyrics yet I cannot remember to stop at the store for one single thing that’s been on my to-do list for a week,” I mused to myself. This is of course a regular occurrence that happens literally every time I go somewhere, but in the middle of singing I started laughing as I realized I had cruised right past the healthy pet food store and I desperately needed to replenish our supply of dog treats. The other day I was cruising home after a meeting, music cranked up as loud as it could go (the dogs were waiting at home for me) and singing my heart out to one song after another, with all of their complicated lyrics flowing from my brain and voice without a single mistake. Basically I have been living with a Labrador Retriever by my side and a Bruce Springsteen song on the radio for the majority of my life. I am an old soul and a creature of habit musically, happily jamming out to concerts that were recorded when I was just a young Jerseygirl, playing on the swing set in Sparta, New Jersey with our dog Snoop by my side. And before you think it was Born in the USA that set this obsession in motion, it was actually the Live 1975-1985 boxed set that swept me up into this thirty plus year love of all things Bruce. In fact, I’ve been listening almost exclusively to Springsteen ever since my parents bought me my first Springsteen record in 1986. Of course it was set to its usual position on Sirius XM’s EStreet Radio, which is where it remains whether I’m running down the backstreets, if I’m going to drive all night, and especially when the highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive. The other day I was driving in my car, and I turned on the radio. Springsteen Lyrics, Dog Training, and What They Have in Common
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