By Nick Miller

When I was in the fourth grade I joined the school band. For some reason I was really into Pete Fountain when I was in elementary school, so of course I chose the instrument that the great band leader had wielded himself: The Mighty Clarinet. There I was on the first day of band class with my fellow clarinetists and my rented clarinet (despite my insistence that my mother buy me a clarinet, because clearly I was destined for greatness with the new instrument). I was ready to jump into some of Pete’s best known works, and I was sure that by the end of the 45 minute class I would be laying down some exquisite improv solos in Pete’s Dixieland and New Orleans Jazz styles.

As you can imagine the next 45 minutes were a bit if a disappointment for this eager and young musician. After spending about half the class being taught how to properly put the wooden reed in place, we were given a major scale to practice for the week and sent on our way. I quit band, and the clarinet, about a month later.

The problem was that I wasn’t able to put in the repetitive foundational work, to get to the point where playing the clarinet was in my sense memory and to play a tune would be effortless.  I just had no interest in practicing my scales.

I see a lot of people give up with training their dog at this early stage too.

A few weeks ago a dog trainer that I greatly admire (Chad Mackin of Pack to Basics™) posted a quote on his Facebook page by the horse trainer Ray Hunt.  It beautifully illustrates the difficulty of starting the training of an animal and the journey you must go on, so I want to share it with you.

(On training horses)

“You want your body and his body to become one.  This is our goal.  It takes some physical pressure naturally, to start with, but you keep doing less and less physical and more and more mental. Pretty soon, it’s just a feel following a feel, whether it comes today, tomorrow or next year.  So one little thing falls into line, into place.  I wish it would all fall into place right now for you, but it doesn’t because it has to become a way of life.  It’s a way you think.  It’s a way you live.  You can’t make any of this happen, but you can let it happen by working at it.”

We need to practice our scales.  Every day.  And, of course, it goes beyond learning a musical instrument or training your dog.  It’s habits.  It’s life.  I struggle with my own, as do we all.  But, we’re blessed to have these struggles just as we’re blessed to have these dogs.  Happy training.

You can contact Nick via email nick@urbanhounds.com, or follow him on Twitter and Instagram @nicklesarescary.  In addition to training dogs he plays the acoustic guitar.