Remembering Shontal

We got her as a gift from a friend of ours as a 2 week baby. As she remained silent the entire day, we named her Shontal after the French word chanteuse—meaning “sweet voiced girl”. She has been an integral part of my life for a good number of years.

She was a Labrador retriever. She remained my constant companion and loyal friend until I met with a near fatal accident on August 15, 1997. I raised her almost as my daughter and she was a part of many a happy incidents in my life.

If you are thinking of getting a dog into your home, as a family member, remember you are making a commitment to that dog for its lifetime, probably even more than your own children.

I'm not such an expert, but I did try my hands at training Shontal for a number of years and had (accidentally?) used some of the friendly methods recommended by the a renowned, dog trainer—Mr. Ian Dunbar does in the video below.

I remember times when I started. I had no idea on dog training or education in general. My first dog was very patient, he taught me a lot. The simple rule that we followed was to teach obedience through simple play and award. Basically, I learned to appreciate every little thing that she did and said “good girl” and “thank you”.

It’s very important for us to see the world through the eyes of our beloved dogs. By knowing our pets' perspective, we can build their love and trust. It's a message that resonates well beyond the animal world.

As a result, I almost always had a happy, healthy and obedient dog. It's lovely to find out that some of my simple, easy and fun dog training methods belong to a wider philosophy on the subject!

It is essential that our dog needs to know that they can trust us and that we will never deliberately hurt or be unkind to them. All I ever had to do was call/ whistle and my dog immediately returned and were rewarded with hugs and pats.