Short story: The well-trained dog who was lost to his trainer

@innertalks That's very true. Ruthless is the right word.

Yes, it is particularly sad when it happens that a father tries to coach his own child in tennis, swimming, or golf, for example. They can be ruthless taskmasters, which destroys any bonds, and applies more shackles to their child then instead.

Interesting question. How do freedom and love relate to each other? I would say that God loves all, and also gives all freedom. but a balanced position must be reached in each part of creation, which is different for every other part. Each part of creation has its own balance point where freedom disappears and "slaveness" to the loved one takes over, or in reverse, when love overcomes freedom, because it is real love, and then the window opens wider for us, as we see the truth, that only love gives real freedom, and non-love traps us inside the building of ourselves, with closed windows besides.

@innertalks I can relate with a slightly different experience from my working life. At a couple of workplaces I had given my heart and soul to the organizations I was working for and I could sense my colleagues and those who worked down the line were so much appreciative of my efforts. However, extraneous circumstances, including unreasonableness of directors, made me vote with my feet like this trainer's dog. In the end the love and affection had to give way to the harsh reality of corporate life and I could not go against my conscience. My inner voice told me to face the reality and do the right thing rather than work against my conscience, and also love in the end. I was getting entrapped and compromising love for trying to please the mean minded directors and I was left with taking the exit route with a heavy heart - siva

@Shiva49 Thanks, siva. That's a great example, of how we can become stifled/trapped/entrapped/cloistered etc, if we bow to someone else's "training" of us in wrong ways, that rub up against our conscience in the wrong ways too. Love connects us to our conscience, and so if we step away from our conscience, we also step away from love too.

Yes, I agree, and reversely, a lost free spirit is a very sad situation indeed.

True @innertalks but it seems to me if the kritter were actually well trained then it would not have run off. Off leash training is the most important and you must bond with the dog or that will never happen.

@rebelann That's true too, but a badly treated dog, trained in a cruel way, will take its chances to escape, when it can, I think too.

Yes, he took his chances, and run off, maybe he had been planning his escape for a while, who knows, the mind of a dog?

Yes, he took his chances, and run off, maybe he had been planning his escape for a while, who knows, the mind of a dog?

Yes, we should never push someone else to their absolute limit, I think. A lot of trainers are guilty of this, swimming coaches, tennis coaches, etc.etc.

@amitkokiladitya That's a good point. A good trainer should be able to do that, and not overtrain/overwork their student/trainee.

@innertalks yes.. every person has a learning limit and trainers shoud have the art of recognising it.

Thanks. This idea applies to a lot of other areas of our lives too, I think. It's the old story of, "all work, and no play, makes Jack a dull boy." We all need loving in our lives, not just work, work, and more work.

There are others that are not really fathers, but who are really more taskmasters too, though. Sometimes a father will train his daughter to be a tennis player, and he is ruthless with her training, so that eventually, she comes to hate and to despise her father, for driving her too far past her limits. Yes, let's hope the dog trainer learnt a lesson here, and is not like that with his next dog too. Perhaps, it being his own dog, the dog trainer here, was more severe than necessary with his own dog to show himself off from its training as an exemplary trainer. And so he overdid it here, like the tennis dad, I mentioned above did too.

@Shiva49 lnteresting reading. I didn't know about Tomic's father. It explains a lot.

@innertalks Ye Steve, I recall a few incidents and posting a link that says it all how not to go overboard with the coaching. Some are entitled to walk through the Hall of Shame going by how they got carried away! siva

Yes, encouragement goes a long way. The discouraged usually lose interest without sufficient self-drive within themselves too. The enigma of life creates varied solutions, but the solution must match the person in the solution for it to work best for him, as when he is not a part of the solution, he looks for another equation then to be a part of instead, where things will better add up for him then too. Equality on both sides of an equation works best for both parties in that equation, I think too.

@dgobucks226 Thanks, I wasn't sure how clearly I put that.

@innertalks Like how you phrased that Steve

Yes, very sad. Perhaps, the trainer was changed after such an incident happening in his life too. The dog, obviously, had had enough training for now, in its overtrained life.