Pet-agogy
With pets being like family members, owners’ thoughts naturally turn to educating and training them, and more and more dogs are being sent to school. There are now more than 20 such academies in Taiwan, with classes in everything from basic obedience to special tricks, and courses running from as little as two months to as long as a full year.
Some people may wonder why dogs that are not doing some special task—like seeing-eye dogs or working dogs—need training. Gu Jiakui, the director of a training academy for working dogs in Banqiao, says that dogs these days spend a lot of time with humans, and if they do not have good behavioral standards, they can be hard to control. For example, the dog might see something interesting on the street and just bolt off in pursuit, injuring its owner in the process, or may be noisy and hyperactive at home, causing problems with the neighbors.
There are also countless books on the market on raising and training dogs. But many people, lacking sufficient time or sufficient determination, still choose to have their dogs trained professionally.
Gu Jiakui, who has been training dogs for 30 years, says that basic obedience training includes following oral commands to sit, lie down, stand up, and so on, and at a more advanced level includes teaching dogs to halt on command, lie down and wait, or stay at their owner’s side at whatever speed the owner is moving. Owners can thus take their dogs out for a walk without worrying too much about having them run out of control or into danger.
“The main point of training is to teach the dog to distinguish between right and wrong,” says Gu. For example, chewing anything that comes to hand or jumping up on people are wrong, while carrying something to the owner is correct behavior. These days rewarding correct behavior has replaced the outdated practice of training through punishment.
In general, if you want to send your dog to “boarding school,” the training takes at least two months, at a cost of about NT$18,000 per month in tuition and board. Advanced skills include guarding moveable property or cars, protecting the master, waiting patiently for long periods of time, and climbing and clearing obstacles. Dogs can even be taught specific skills tailor-made for the owner.
The right to healthcare
Like all living things, pets age and get sick, and veterinary medicine is a growing market that cannot be ignored. Right now there are over 3000 veterinary clinics in Taiwan. Many have gone beyond one-man operations and the basic repertoire of shots and prescriptions to large-scale hospitals with full staffs and the capability of doing complex surgeries.
Zhang Yishen, director of the Yong Chun Veterinary Clinic, who enjoys a certain level of fame in the pet community, says: “The advancement in the technical level of veterinary medicine reflects a transformation in the attitude of Taiwanese society toward raising pets.” In the past, he says, only livestock were considered to be animals of value, while others were left to their own devices. But now people care a lot about the health of their pets, which creates opportunities for veterinary science to advance. For example, in days gone by when people brought a sick domestic animal in, they would simply ask, “Can he be saved?” Now they ask, “Doctor, how do you plan to treat him?” People are trying to make sure that their pets get a level of care and consideration that puts them on a plane with human patients going to the doctor.
However, the services offered by these hospitals do not come cheap. For example, a hip replacement costs NT$250,000, cataract surgery with intraocular lens implantation goes for NT$30,000 per eye, and a heart ultrasound means a bill of NT$8000.
“Pets are like mirrors, reflecting who we are.” Zhang appeals to everyone to think beyond the happiness that animals bring to human lives, and consider what we can do for animals. For a start, we could, through education and the full enforcement of the identity chip system, reduce animal abuse and abandonment. This would tell us for certain that we live in a progressive society where animals enjoy dignity and affection!