Unlimited willpower

Image by Bo Kalvslund from Pixabay

I have heard that a two-year-old can have the willpower to hold their breath until they literally turn blue. Today I witnessed something similar with my two-year-old son. Since last week, we now go on daily dog walks together, and he insists to handle one of our two labradors even though it is twice as heavy as himself. I have never personally witnessed determination or willpower even close to what I have now seen with my son. The dog is strong and pulls him in the wrong direction, he drops the leash, and he loses his balance and falls. A lot. And yet, he will NEVER let me take the leash from him. He shall do it his way, alone.

We have two Labrador retrievers. They might be the best family dog in the world and the best friend you will ever have. It is a blessing to watch a kid develop a relationship with the dogs. I believe it is healthy to grow up with them. It builds character and teaches responsibility. The young dog (Jussi) is three and the old dog is nine. Jussi is filled with demonic energy and is a handful, even for an old man like me. The older dog (Gibson, nine years), on the other hand, is one of the laziest creatures I have ever met. He is like a Koala bear trapped in a dog body. That makes him the perfect walking companion for my two-year-old. However, lazy or not, physics is a reality one cannot escape. When Gibson decides to go in another direction than what my son had in mind – That is the direction that they are heading. Or if Gibson decides to stop, they stop. And every time, instantly, when this happens (which is like 99% of the time) my son screams out his disappointed rage over the discrepancy between his expectations and reality. At first, I offered my help with the leash, but to my surprise, this made him angrier! A lot angrier. So, I step back and observe instead.

I thought that perhaps I could go on a walk with just one of the dogs, because it is so difficult to handle two and a two-year-old. That was beyond a red line for my son. He was crystal clear that Gibson shall join us, and he shall be the one handling him. Our dog walks so far have a duration of up to 1,5 hours. When I go alone with the dogs, I often walk twice the distance in one third of the time, to get some perspective. And when we get back home, my son’s voice is hoarse from all the furious screaming. Occasionally, the boy and the dog’s will coincide for 30 seconds or a minute, and then his screams turn into euphoric screams of joy. Only to transform back into fury in a blink of an eye later. Sometimes this turns into an emotional square wave with a period time of a couple of seconds, which is quite intense to witness indeed.

But the most fascinating thing to me, is when the dog pulls away too hard so that he falls when trying to run and catch up with him. Because he refuses to let go of the leash whatever happens. He falls over, might hurt himself a little, but as soon as humanly possible, he is on his feet again, running for the leash and grabbing it to continue the dog walk. In tonight’s walk, this happened again and again, until I decided to assist so I grabbed the leash and pulled the dog back onto the gravel road. He had fallen and dropped the leash and could hardly grab it again because the dog kept moving. And then it happened. In the corner of my eye, I noticed my son crawling back onto his feet and mustering a final push with the last of his forces like a wounded soldier in a war movie stretching out his hand and finally grabbing the leash. “GOT IT” he yelled with a guttural voice that I never could imagine a two-year-old could produce. It would have fit perfectly in a death metal album and would have made George Fisher proud.

That was a demonstration of ultimate willpower, and I have never seen anything like it before. Keep that spirit going and there will be nothing that can stop this young man. Very inspiring to witness. How someone that small can go up against unbeatable odds – A beast twice the weight and perhaps ten times stronger – and still the thought of surrender never ever crossed his mind.

I look forward to watching his 30 seconds of joy turning into minutes, and finally whole walks when he gets older. This story is just another demonstration of why I love country life so much more than city life. Here, I can do exercises like this, which would be impossible in the city due to all the other dogs around and the chaos that would surely ensue. But we live in the middle of nowhere. What an amazing privilege to start dog training at the age of two.