When it comes to dog training, I’ve come to understand that some things can be taught quickly, while others take a while. Do you know how I learned that lesson? From a French teacher I had in college.

It was beginner’s French, and from day one she had a “no English” class rule. I was confused by 99% of what she said, but I decided to give it a shot. I was excited as we began learning numbers and the alphabet, something I could easily follow, but when it came to putting together phrases, I was lost.

My teacher came up to me and said “quel est votre passe-temps favori?” which sounded like complete nonsense to me. I knew she was asking me a question, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. So I said “Sorry, I don’t understand.” Well, that broke the “no English” rule, so I just froze because I had no idea as to how to apologize in French.

So what did she do? She kept getting closer to me, repeating ‘quel est votre passe-temps favori?’ over and over, each time a bit louder, as if I had a hearing problem, rather than a complete shortage of comprehension.

I think about that class often. I really did feel hopeless, and the laughter from everyone else in class didn’t help. It’s not that she was a bad teacher. It’s just that she had very little patience for students like me who didn’t catch on immediately.

Well, it taught me to be more patient with Laika when learning new things. And since I don’t want her to be like the embarrassed kid in class, I don’t speak loudly at her or repeat myself when she doesn’t “get it.” I go back and figure out how I can help her understand and put meaning to my requests.

Your peers are people your age or close to it who have experiences and interests similar to yours. You and your friends make dozens of decisions every day, and you influence each other’s choices and behavior. This is often ________ — it’s human nature to listen to and learn from other people in your age group.

Sometimes, though, the stresses in your life can actually come from your peers. They may pressure you into doing something you’re uncomfortable with, such as shoplifting, doing drugs or drinking, or taking dangerous risks when driving a car.

The pressure to conform (随潮流) can be powerful and hard to resist. A person might feel pressure to do something just because others are doing it. Peer pressure can influence a person to do something that is relatively harmless — or something that has more serious consequences. People may feel pressure to conform, so they fit in or are accepted, or so they don’t feel awkward or uncomfortable. When people are unsure of what to do in a social situation, they naturally look to others for cues (暗示) about what is and isn’t acceptable.

The people who are most easily influenced will follow someone else’s lead first. Then others may go along, too — so it can be easy to think, “It must be OK. Everyone else is doing it. They must know what they’re doing.” Before you know it, many people are going along with the crowd — perhaps on something they might not otherwise do.

Responding to peer pressure is part of human nature — but some people are more likely to give in, and others are better able to resist and stand their ground.

It’s not always easy to resist negative peer pressure. But when you do, it is easy to feel good about it afterwards. And you may even be a positive influence on your peers who feel the same way — often it just takes one person to speak out or take a different action to change a situation.