Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs Part 13

It's a very simple job. Just about

anyone could do it that wants to.

CAMPGROUND MAINTENANCE WORKER.

Marie Sprague.

I'm a laborer for the U.S. National Park Service. I clean up around the Seawall campground in Acadia National Park. That's on Mount Desert Island in Maine. I was born here, on the island, and I've lived most all of my life here. I'm sixtynine years old. Before this, I worked for forty years at the sardine canneries in Bar Harbor. When they all shut down, I had a friend working at the park and they had an opening. She said, "Go get your application in in January," and I did. Come spring, I got hired. That was thirteen years ago.

We start up in the middle of May, when the tourists come in. And I work until October the twelfth. It's a seasonal job. Five months. I don't work winters. [Laughs] Winters, I just put on weight.

The first few years here, I went out what they call "roadsiding" in a truck with another girl. We picked up trash and cleaned restrooms at Sandbeach and the different camping and parking areas around Acadia-at Thunderhole and all those places. I still do that same thing, but now I stay just in the Seawall campground. For the last eight or nine years, I've just been at Seawall every day.

There's a lot of walking around involved in this. I've never done so much walking. Not since I was a youngster, anyway. When I worked in the sardine factory we stood in just one place, you know, packed fish. Forty years of that. It's good to be working outside. Seeing trees and nature and everything. I really like it. Sometimes it rains hard, but we have rain gear we put on. We still work. Put our rain gear on and go. It's not so bad. It gets cold sometimes, too, but I'm used to it. I don't even put a jacket on until it gets January. I hate a jacket. I'll be working in October here just like this-in short sleeves. Everybody else is freezing to death! It's chilly, fifties, sixties. It doesn't bother me.

The only time I'm inside is when I'm cleaning those restrooms. I have six restrooms that I do each day. I used to do twelve, but now another girl takes half of them. The restrooms aren't so great. There's some bad odors sometimes-and some messes. But you get used to it. I don't really mind anymore. [Laughs] I don't like it, but I don't mind.

Yesterday an old man came into the restroom while I was in the stall and he thought there was a man cleaning. When he saw me, he said, "Oops, there's a lady cleaner." I was outside by then, because you know he had to go really quick and the odor in there wasn't too good. So I got outside, and he says, "Don't come back in here." He says, "I haven't got my pants on yet all the way up." And I says, "I'm not! I'm not coming in!" [Laughs] That kind of thing happens sometimes. He was a nice fellow, though. Very polite. Some of 'em come in and they'll go right and use the urinal and I'll say, "You are not supposed to be in here. We are closed for cleaning." And they'll say, "Well, I don't mind if you don't." But I do mind. I don't like to be in those bathrooms with anybody. But when I'm in the stall and I come out and he's over there using the urinal, what are you going to do? [Laughs] Sometimes they listen to me, though. There was one that hollered to me today and said, "Can I come in?" I says, "No, go to the next building!" And he went. Nice fellow.

I work five days a week, seven in the morning to three in the afternoon. The whole time is spent just constantly doing something. You know, we try and keep ourselves busy. We don't kill ourselves, but we try to keep busy. Like today we've got caught up on the bathrooms, so we've been out picking up litter and raking campsites, whatever we can find to do, getting the rocks out and the pinecones, makes it a little more uniform for them to put their tents and stuff down on the ground.

When we've done all we can, maybe we'll go back and re-check the bathrooms to see if there are any messes in 'em, if they need more toilet paper. Yesterday, we finished everything early and, see that building over there? I done windows in it. Took the screens out, cleaned all of 'em.

It's a very simple job. Just about anyone could do it that wants to. I could probably do it in my sleep. [Laughs]

Most of the tourists are nice. A lot of them say, "Good morning" and "How are you today?" They don't even really litter so much now anymore. The campsites are a lot cleaner these days, they pick up after themselves a lot better. Once in a while, we'll find a fireplace full of beer bottles or pop cans, or stuff like that. But we just go take them out. It's not hard at all.

I've been working since I was sixteen. I wish now I'd started out here when I was a lot younger. Really, I wish I'd just worked here the whole time. It would have been a lot easier job than what I had to do in the past. The fish factories were awful hard. We worked sometimes from daylight till dark-near all day and half the night. And the whole time, we had to stand right there steady and just pack fish, and cut tails off them and put them in cans. It was pretty tiring, I'll tell ya. Sometimes you could sit down, but I couldn't sit. Some women could, but I couldn't sit down and do it. Sometimes I done twentyfour hours straight. Standing there, cutting up sardines. Lucky if you got home and got into bed.

It was just bad work. You had to be a real fast packer in order to even make any money. They paid so much a case and if you didn't make the hourly time, they wouldn't have to pay you the rate. If you were a slow packer, you didn't make your money. And the sharp scissors, oh, I don't know how many injured fingers and that sort of thing I cut. I got scars on my hands, I got more arthritis than anything from cutting and using the scissors so much. I had to have both hands operated on between the fingers right here. They cut little-oh, I can't remember what they said they was in there for-but they cut 'em, clipped 'em. My fingers sometimes would go like this and just curl up and I couldn't even straighten 'em out. There's a lot of women who worked in that factory picking crabmeat and they've had the same problem and they've had their hands operated on and they never got better. And we had no insurance, no nothing.

This is like G.o.d's gift, this job. I feel very lucky to have it. When the factories closed, I didn't know what to do. It's hard for me to get work on the island because I wasn't educated, you know, to do much of anything. I probably could've done restaurant work, but I don't like that. This job saved me.

I love being out here. I like the outdoors. I go outdoors a lot in the wintertime when I'm not working, go sledding and stuff. I've always done that. I like to do it now with the grandchildren. I keep up with them. [Laughs] I pull my own sled. It's great fun. And it's so beautiful here. I've been to other places and I think this is about the prettiest place there is around. Not many people can say that they live in one of the prettiest places in the world. But really, it is really beautiful. Look around-there's the sand beach and the cliffs, Otter Point and Cadillac Mountain. Trees everywhere. Just real beauty.

I'm going to keep this job as long as I can go. The pay is good, eleven thirty-eight an hour. I need the money because when I have to retire, I won't be getting anything but Social Security. That will be it. And I don't ever want to have to leave this island. All my family is around me-my husband, all my children, grandchildren. My great-grandchildren. I was born and always lived here. I've gone to Ma.s.sachusetts-Lockstone, Ma.s.sachusetts-didn't stay long, went to Connecticut, didn't stay long there, either. I've been to Florida a couple times, didn't think too much of it. This is the place for me.

We try to add a lot of psychoactives to

the ordeal.

LAWN MAINTENANCE MAN.

Brian Zeigler.

I'm a lawn maintenance worker. Lawn maintenance man. Otherwise known as a lawn pimp! Ze mower! Mowin' some gra.s.s! [Laughs] I work for A-1 Lawn Care and Snow Removal in Ann Arbor, Michigan. [Laughs] A-1! Bob Newton's the boss. We call him Fruitin' Newton or Fig Newton. Because he's one of those guys that just like comes at ya. Like all intense and insane, and he never knows what's goin' on or what he's talking about, you know? So he'll be like, "Make sure to lube your mowers!" You know? Or something, you know. Or, "It's going to be a mowing marathon today!" And he's always touching you and he's always-hoo, hoo, hoo [ape sounds]-like he's on c.o.ke or something, you know what I mean? Just always freakin' out.

Yeah, Bob Newton. He's a good guy, though. He is. Good boss. [Laughs] He owns and runs the company. Never cuts a lawn, though. Never. His family has money, I believe-because we cut like his grandpa's house in Barton Hills. That's all like million-dollar homes out there, like a private neighborhood or whatever. They have their own country club and golf course and everything. Most, like, big businessmen own houses there. [Laughs] You know, Mike Illedge has a house there. Mike Illedge is the Pizza Man. He owns Little Caesar's-or one of the pizza things. I'm pretty sure it's Little Caesar's. Or Domino's. One of those. He owns some sports teams, too, I think. Yeah, pizza-that's a high-profit business right there if you're the king pizza man, you know? [Laughs] It's like-then you can pay me to cut your lawn. [Laughs]

I like it, man. I just like to work outside, for the most part, you know. And then I like to be boss-free, where I can do whatever I want in the day. Not, like, constrained and bored, you know what I mean? I mean, you get bored mowing lawns, but I don't really think about that. You can think about whatever you want out here, you know? Where, like, another job-like in an office-you have to focus on how bored you are.

I started doing this as a summer thing. I had friends that were doing it, and they got me in. Then I started doing a little bit in the winter when I wasn't in school. Plowin' snow. So it used to be like an occasional thing, but now-it's a pa.s.sion! [Laughs] Seriously, man, it's just, you know, a pretty goofy job. I mean, a ridiculous job. And now I'm doin' it full-time.

You know, I go in every day. Sharpen the blades, get the equipment all workin'. I show up usually seven, eight. Between seven and eight. Usually hit the lawns about nine, you know, start mowin'. We usually all meet up in the morning and all smoke down, too. Because that's like the morning ritual, you know. Everybody-everyone from A-1, like sixteen of us-we pick a different spot each morning and after we leave the shop, before we all split up, you know, it all starts with the morning bake-down and then-and then we'll meet up for lunch again, and then meet up at the end of the day and it's just-you know, we try to stay pretty delirious out there. We try to add a lot of psychoactives to the ordeal. [Laughs]

We all have the common interest of smoking marijuana. It almost is like this cult. A clique. We all have that in common. Plus just humor. Humor plays a big part in it, you know? To get through everything, I think you need a lot of humor. [Laughs] Because it is pretty taxing. I mean, physically sometimes, you know. Between the noise and walking all over everywhere, you know? I mean, these are huge f.u.c.king lawns. Miles of f.u.c.king gra.s.s. People can't mow it themselves. So like, we're out there forever, you know, out in the sun-just the weather all the time. Riding around on those big f.u.c.king vibrating mowers. The seats on those things will just totally give you hemorrhoids! And when it rains you get swamp foot. Which is like-you get soaked feet, man, and then you've got to work through the day with some wet feet. Plus, you know, whatever-you're inhaling exhaust. And fertilizer. People put nasty f.u.c.king chemicals on their lawns. We got a fertilizer guy and he usually comes like two days before we do and he wears like a respirator and a backpack and s.h.i.+t. [Laughs] Spraying this cancerous s.h.i.+t. And then we come in like a day or two later and just ride around on it. [Laughs] So you want the delirium, man. You want it pretty bad.

My crew, we do the big lawns. There's like maybe four crews that deal with the big lawns. And then another four like deal with the smaller ones, you know. So we ride. We're on the hydraulic mowers, and they like fly. They go fast. Yeah. Sixty-one-inch decks each.

I'm the "crew leader"-which means I like drive the truck to the job and go through the lists and all that. What we gotta do next, you know? Where we're going. It's pretty much bulls.h.i.+t. The only reason that I'm like, whatever, the crew leader is because my friend Tim broke his wrist. Because he-I used to just work-and then he broke his wrist skateboarding so I had to take over the crew. [Laughs] Because to be a crew leader, you have to be able to drive the truck. And Tim can't do it with a broken wrist. So Bob gave Tim's job to me.

There's other guys who've been here longer than me, but the reason I got chosen for that is because Bob is just like impressed by people like myself that go to college and thinks that they're [laughs] you know, whatever. He doesn't even have to know ya. He'll just like ya if you went to school. Just because, I mean, this kind of job can attract more lower end-lower education, you know, people. I mean, some of the dudes on these other crews are not always, like, the most intense workers. And some of them are these kind of questionable characters. For instance, like, everybody's been to jail at least once. And a lot of people drink all the time. They're into liquid lunches.

It's so easy to f.u.c.k off on the job, I mean, you know. n.o.body's there watchin' ya. No one cares. I mean, we're out in the boonies. n.o.body's around us anyways. There's no traffic. It's not like a subdivision or somethin'.

But actually, we don't really get that much time to goof around, you know. [Laughs] Not as much as I'd like. There's just always so many lawns to do. You've just got to keep doin' it. And then stuff will always break down, you know. We're always havin' to bring a mower into the shop and you'll be down one mower. Or a trimmer won't work or stuff's just always breakin' down. And usually we have to fix it. We're the ones who have to try to figure out what's goin' on. That gets dull fast.

Tim says-and this makes sense in a way-that this is really a high school kid's job. That, you know, I mean, like there's eighteen-yearolds here and stuff. And, you know, we're all like twenty-four, twentyfive. [Laughs] I mean, everyone that I work with, you know what I mean? So it's just like-it does seem like a high school kid's job. You know, like a summer job that some kid would have and then leave, you know. But a lot of people have been here for like six, seven years. It's kind of wild.

And, I mean, everyone's makin' all right money, you know? I mean, it's like ten bucks an hour plus you get use of your truck, plus insurance. I guess that's-what does that work out to be? I don't know. Maybe thirty-if you had everything, maybe thirty a year, you know? So it's not, like, unreasonable that a person might do this all year round.

Last year, though, was the first where I personally did that. And- I don't know. It's definitely a job I don't see myself doing forever. But for right now it works. I think this may be the last summer I'm doing it because it's going to be 2000, you know, and I've been partying like it's 1999 for like [laughs] ten years or something, so I think after this [laughs]-after the year 2000 I'm going to quit. I'm going to be like more, you know. I'll be-I'll be-I don't know what I'm going to do.

I mean, my job right now is cool because-my best ideas tend to come out of boredom, you know, whatever comes out of like, not having everything to do but just to sit there and think, you know? When you're on the lawn, you know, you haven't got anything else to do but, you know, let your mind go. I'm just better at jobs like that, man.

But I'm going to finish up school. And then maybe I'll try to get one of those jobs where you can wear khaki pants and relax. [Laughs] Then maybe I'd end up turning into one of those people-those people who just want to be out on the lawn, but can't be there. They want to have the big house, they want to have a nice lawn and everything. But they're never on it, man. They're never there. I think everyone wants to be out on the lawn, you know? They're in their job and where they really want to be is on the lawn and right now, I'm on the lawn. I mean, that's just-that's the truth of it, you know. They never do anything on these huge lawns and these huge houses and it's like-I don't know.

I mean most of 'em-if they do care they're just really picky about how it looks. It's not England, man. That's what everyone wants is like those English lawns. And it's not. The gra.s.s here is different. It doesn't grow like that, you know. It grows tall, you know. [Laughs] Or whatever. And they just never-but they never go on it, you know. It doesn't even matter because n.o.body's on their lawn. I am.

People come to me at the important

occasions in their lives-from birth

to death.

FLORIST.

Lora Harding.

I've been working at a small flower shop in San Francisco for the last two years. I suppose I took this job because it doesn't b.u.m me out. [Laughs] It's not some suck-a.s.s office job that's mentally and emotionally draining. Before I worked here, I worked for a company in this neighborhood. I was in a cube all day and I hated it. So to cheer up, I would come to this shop, every Friday, and treat myself to some flowers. I'd spend about an hour in here each time. After a while, I became friends with the woman who worked the Friday night s.h.i.+ft. We'd talk about all the arrangements she'd made, and I'd ask her questions about all of the different flowers. Then, one of the employees gave notice that she was quitting, and they asked me if I wanted to take her place.

So now it's like, I stand behind the counter. There are all these flowers everywhere. [Laughs] And people come in, I help them-give advice, do a little arranging, and I run the register. It's simple. It's great. And in a way, I think it's really kind of fascinating. Because, see, when people buy flowers, it's a very intimate thing. It's usually in celebration or in memory of something or someone. So they come in nervous, maybe they want to impress their date. But they don't want to impress her too much, they don't want to come off looking like they're overzealous. So you give them advice-they don't want to buy the wrong thing-and they trust you.

Or, like, I had a woman come in today-I was the second person she told that she was pregnant. She said, "I'm buying flowers for my mother, because I'm going to tell her that I'm pregnant." And she started crying in the shop. She was like, "I'm sorry, I've only told my husband, and now I'm going to go tell my mother. I'm so happy." And I'm standing there, "Yeah. That's great." I didn't-actually, I didn't know what to say. But, you know, that's like the job. Everybody really opens up to you. They may not come in every day, but when they come-it's like people come to me at the important occasions in their lives-from birth to death. And you get sad for them or you get psyched for them. It's like all these little intimate interactions all day long.

I have men come in a lot and say, "I'm in trouble. I need to buy my wife flowers." Rarely do they say, "I just got caught having an affair." Rarely will they tell you what it is they did. But you know, you just don't see guys like that all that often-so like vulnerable or whatever, you know? I had a guy come in, really nervous. He told me that the flower he was buying was his "last chance" rose. He said, "Yeah. I really f.u.c.ked up. This rose is my last chance." He literally made me go through the entire store to find the right one. He kept putting them all back, "No, that's not the right one." He was like, "You don't understand. This is my last chance." He was so serious. It's weird because, you know, he doesn't know me from anyone. He shouldn't be telling me this s.h.i.+t. But in a way, it was kind of sweet.

They basically give a message, you know? Giving flowers is a way of communicating without words. And I think weirdly, a lot of times, they work. They say like what we mean to say but that we can't say because-well, I don't know why. I think a lot of people have a hard time saying what they really feel. And it's just, like, flowers are so beautiful, you know? And they do have these meanings. Red roses-love and fidelity. They've meant that for a really long time. And people try and say, "I love you" and it's like [laughs] whatever, you know? Boring. Who could ever say it better than a rose?

The majority of our customers are over thirty. Fairly wealthy- but not all of them. We get a mix of people. We've got a cab driver who comes in every day and buys a rose for her girlfriend. And it's interesting to see people come in who clearly have a lot of money, but don't want to spend it on something that's going to be thrown away. And then there are the people who-you can tell-have very little money to be spending on this type of luxury, but they can't help themselves. I think I fall more into that category, as someone who has never really had a lot of money, I always want flowers. I still [laughs] spend my money on flowers. Even though I'm around them all day, I still want them at home.

And I don't care that they die. I think that the ephemeral quality to flowers is really seductive. I think there's something really wonderful about the fact that they really only last for a certain amount of time. Within that time, they can be more beautiful than something that might last forever.

I like unusual flowers. Right now I'm really into French parrot tulips. I'm always pus.h.i.+ng them. Anybody who has like a little att.i.tude, wants something funky, I steer them toward the parrot tulips. They look like tulips except they're really huge and they have the coloring of a parrot-red and green. They're kind of crinkled-looking. Amazing flowers. And I also like these types of marigolds called naughty mariettas. They're burgundy-and-yellow-striped-really beautiful, and they smell great. The flower itself smells sweet, and the stems smell sort of herbal. They last for a very long time.

And it's great when somebody comes in and they don't know what they want-or they're just like, "I want as big a bouquet as I can get for forty bucks!" [Laughs] You know, they just want volume. A big pile of cheap flowers. Like they could get at Safeway. And you steer them toward something a little different-maybe not even more expensive, but just different. Like maybe just a few exquisite flowers. And they buy those and sometimes they're so happy with themselves 'cause they didn't just get whatever, you know, a mixed bouquet. And they like start coming back regularly and talking about calla lilies or whatever-they become flower people. It's like-that's a great feeling.

I'm very content at my job. I definitely like this. It's made me realize just how much I hate office work. It's not angsty. I think what I do brings beauty into people's lives. Even though it's a beauty that's generally reserved for the elite and the wealthy, I don't care-I think I'm fortunate that I'm able to reap the benefits of someone else's wealth. And I think it's very sad that there are many people in the world who never get to have even one beautiful cut flower in their house, because it's too much of a luxury.

I'm twenty-four. I don't know what I really want to do-I'd like to be a writer or an actor. You know? I could see myself doing a lot of things. For right now, though, this works. It's five days a week steady. I get paid under the table. [Laughs] And I'm happy.

I'm not about to make flowers my whole life. But I love surrounding myself with them. And I definitely love giving them to people. When I had a boyfriend, I'd buy flowers for him all the time. And now I buy flowers for friends a lot, or give flowers to them when they come into the shop. I just love giving away flowers-like when you're cleaning a bunch of roses, you'll always be left with one rose that's stem has snapped. So we have a little dish of leftover flowers with stems that are too short to sell. I give those to the little kids who come in. Little kids love flowers. It's funny. Sometimes I'll give a twoyear-old a flower, and they'll be really excited. And then they'll just start yanking the petals out. Their parent will be like, "That's so nice." Then the kid will just be tearing the thing apart. Ripping it all up. And the parents are just mortified, like, "Oh, I'm so sorry." I think that's fine, though, that's great. Let the kid do what they want. That's part of the fun of having a flower. If somebody gives you a flower, do what you want with it, you know? It's yours, enjoy it.

Dogs don't have discussions.

DOG TRAINER.

Lisa Pincus.

I was one of those kids that never got bit by the dog that bit everybody else. I trained our family's shepherd lab when I was twelve. I took him to a group cla.s.s in the park for obedience sessions. A year later, I trained this crazy husky that lived next door to us. Our neighbors never brought her in their house. She was nuts-totally overwhelmed, short attention span, jumped around, very nervous because she never had any human contact. So I walked her, just spent time with her, and then I did obedience.

It never occurred to me that this would be my life's work or anything. In fact, I went to school and studied something completely unrelated to dogs. But from when I was twelve onward, I kept working part-time with trainers, and one day I just woke up and I was like, "What's going on? I'm doing this part-time thing training dogs and I love it and I am making good money at it, so why is it secondary for me?" So I just gave up school and started training dogs professionally. I've been at it now for about ten years.

I don't have children-dogs are my priority in life. I just really love them and I feel so blessed to be able to make a living working with what I love. So even when I work seven days a week, which I do a lot, I don't mind. I'm just so happy.

I get my business by word of mouth, usually from people with problems talking to their veterinarians who've gotten feedback from satisfied clients of mine. The vets refer them to me. I spend most of my time in homes where the owner is frustrated with their dog. Whether it's a puppy or an old dog, it's almost always the same situation-the owner is out of control, the dog is running amok, and no one is communicating. My job is to heal these relations.h.i.+ps. Ninetynine times out of a hundred, the problem is that the owner's trying to communicate with the dog like it's a kid. That doesn't work.

You have to love your dogs and respect them like they're your kids, but you have to talk to them like they're dogs. And dogs speak a totally different language than kids. Theirs isn't a verbal language- it's more of a physical one. So we have to be less verbal and more physical with dogs than might come naturally to us. I mean, hopefully, we don't grab our children and shake them to get their attention. We have discussions. Well, dogs don't have discussions. They bark and growl to get attention, but they don't communicate by going "woof-woof." They don't go back and forth the way we do. Dogs understand the tone and the intent of human words, but only when the words are consistently backed up by physical actions.

I'm not training dogs as much as I am training owners. I always tell clients I don't want to break their dog, I want to teach them to communicate with it. I don't want to produce an overtrained robot, I want a well-behaved family member-a wonderful dog, a dog that you don't need a leash to control, that isn't destructive and doesn't go to the bathroom in your house. And to get that dog, you have to speak its language, which means you have to be physical.

The most important thing about being a good owner is that your dog sees you as being what's called the alpha figure-the leader, the G.o.d. The owner has to be the alpha. You need to be G.o.d of the pack. You can be a loving G.o.d, but you need to be G.o.d first. And to become the alpha in your dog's world, you must be physically aggressive. That does not mean abusive. I don't mean using shock collars and pinch collars and making the dog uncomfortable to get him to obey. You don't do that. It's very important that we respect our animals. G.o.d might have given us dominion of the animals, but if you look up the word "dominion," it really means "to take care of." It's not to abusively dominate. That doesn't work.

I physically dominate dogs by taking control of their bodies without hurting them, usually with my hands and a regular collar and a leash. I could spell out, like many books have, how to train a dog to sit or stay or come, but essentially you just need to get to know your dog and get control of him. Be creative. Physically show him how to do what you want. Like with sitting-push his rear-end down. Now he understands the physical side of it. Praise him when he's sitting, working in the word "sit" into your praise again and again. When he disobeys, say, "bad dog" with deep guttural intonation and force his b.u.t.t down despite what he wants. Be in charge.

I don't lay on top of dogs. You see these exercises in books for pinning a dog called the alpha rollover-where you roll the dog over and expose its stomach. Well, that's a provocation and people get bit doing that. I mean, an alpha rollover is fine with a little puppy, but if you try and do it with a dog that can bite your face, you're really setting yourself up. Dogs will naturally fight to be the alpha.

You can't just wake up one morning and say to your dog, "I am the alpha." Because he's just gonna say, "Oh no, I am." And he's going to fight you just like a dog. You have to establish yourself as the alpha. You have to get physical control of the dog and you have to correct them immediately anytime they do anything wrong. It's all about knowing when the dog has taken you seriously and backing up everything you say with physical actions. You praise good behavior and you put an immediate stop to bad. You're like: "No, you did it wrong and this is what is gonna happen."

Consistency is very important. Typically, when the owner is inconsistent, the dog misbehaves, and the owner gets frustrated. And when you're frustrated, you're definitely not an alpha. You're not in control and your dog knows it. Don't kid yourself. Dogs can detect heart rate change, blood pressure change, any physical change that happens when we get angry or frustrated. It comes out in your tone, and the dog says, "Oh, no longer the alpha."

Now, teaching all this to owners is not simple. My clients often have emotional problems that spill over onto their relations.h.i.+ps with their dogs. Like they're afraid their dogs won't love them if they're consistent and back up what they say. They're unwilling to win the alpha position because the dog might not like them. They usually do the same thing with their kids. "Oh, if I punish them, they might be mad at me, so I don't want to punish them." We're more concerned about being liked than we are about being parents. The same thing with your dog.

I have a client who worries that her dog spends too much time outside, so maybe this dog doesn't love her. I'm like, "What's not to love about you?" What it comes down to is that this woman doesn't feel lovable. And so she looks for love from her dog without having established control first. What she doesn't understand is that before the dog can enjoy your love, it needs to be under your control. Otherwise, it's just gonna feel frustrated and fight to be the alpha.

Of course, my real task is not to get the dog to obey during the training session but to get him to continue obeying after I'm gone and exciting things are happening-guests he doesn't know are arriving, steak smells are enticing, other dogs are coming around. That's the true test of your instruction. So once control has been established, I oversee and the owner does the actual training. I instruct the owner in how to teach the dog, and the owner enforces the obedience. They're both learning at the same time.

My success rate is very high. Generally, when a dog realizes that your whole world is focused on disciplining him, on enforcing what you're telling him, he will rarely break your command again. So you can spoil your dog rotten, but you have to be alpha first.

The key is, in the dog world, the alpha dogs tend to be aloof. They don't look to be loved, but owners do. That's where you can mess up. You have to be in control before you can give or receive love. You have to decide in the core of your being that your dog will have no other option than to obey you every time. When I go into a client's house, the only thing a dog gets from me is: "This is the only way to do it. This is your only option." And he obeys.

Nothing lasts in a tropical

environment.