I want to train you like a dog.
You'll be given commands in a language you don't understand. Through my motions, how I push your butt to the ground, how I gesture and correct, you'll start to learn each. Sit and heel will come quickly enough. They're the first I work on with new animals. Sit. Watch me. You're a smart thing so I expect you to pick this up quickly. Over time you'll naturally begin to focus solely on me, on my hands, even as you idle and rest you'll be alert to my smallest demand.
How long will it take you to realize I've given you a new name? Some dogs never quite put it together. You'll learn to listen to for that foreign twist of my tongue and internalize it. That sound, that's you now. More importantly, that's how I call for you.
The more complicated commands will take weeks to perfect. Days to even learn what I want when I bark that new word at you. Like a dog you'll sit and puzzle over the meaning, playing over the word and the movements I give until it finally clicks.
You'll be so proud when you figure it out that shame wont touch you. You used to be a person after all. Don't you remember how hard you would think about little things like how to manage your life? Now all that drive is refocused on the singular goal of pleasing me.
You exist on my schedule. You'll wake with me, sleep with me. You'll be given access to your water from a bowl on the ground and brought outside to sniff and empty your bladder. You'll find endless joys in the toys I give you and the treats I let you earn.
When I correct you it will be immediate, pointed, and quickly forgiven. Nips to your scruff, the invasion of your personal space, even forcing you to feel small as I pull your face into mine and growl the word you've learned means "No." If you show even a hint of food aggression you'll be eating each piece of your kibble from the small of my hand until I'm satisfied you know nothing belongs to you.
You'll exist without contemplation of yourself. You'll exist for the joys of my praise, my fingernails scratching through your coat, the small treats I feed you.
My sweet puppy, look how far you've come.
