Sometimes life gets in the way..... of how you drive your dog ! ............Not a Tiny Training Tidbit- but a big meal morsel :)

5/15/2017

Hi Everyone--

I wanted so share some brief (well this was supposed to be brief- but ended up not so much !) but valuable thoughts on life and dog training- I know sounds so profound..... and what I mean is----- do you ever feel like life gets in the way of the things you really want to do and need to do ?

Do you look at stuff going on around you and think OMG how will I ever get through this or get this done ! I do - all the the time :) And one of the things that makes sorting out priorities easier is to break things down into little parts, little tiny bite size pieces that can be resolved - chewed and swallowed and digested.

-----Now I am not a car person in anyway, but I sure do drive one- in fact one of my other hobbies in life is putting gas in it :) but think of your dog as a car. You want to keep it running smoothly with no problems. Think about how anxious you feel when you hear that weird noise in the engine or feel that unnatural bump OR worse yet- see one of those red dash board lights come on.... warning... problems coming up- BIG problems.

so you take it into the car shop to get it fixed, and there is this one broken part or two----- these small broken parts are causing the whole car not to work. And causing you lots of stress. So your mechanic looks at the cause, finds the parts and makes the fix. He looks at the small piece to fix the whole. And you can drive away with your car puring. Alls those pieces of the engine (and then some!) need to work together smoothly and without issue.

Your dog is like that too, he will give you warnings- you will "feel" something isn't right- just like that engine light going off in your car.

Think of how this simple idea of breaking it down into pieces can affect how you look at your dog and the behaviors you want to change.

Figure out what the problem is- (red oil light is on!!) or "my dog hates other dogs!"
Start to break it down (find the broken part)----- "my dog lunges and barks when he sees another dog it makes the other dog bark too, it makes me worry"
Think about how to fix each of those individual pieces-----"my dog needs to learn to walk properly without issue on a leash no matter what he sees....AND my dog needs better social skills so he doesn't tense up and want to bark" AND I need to feel more confident about my dog"
Take action on fixing each piece------ "find a trainer who can teach good leash walking skills AND some behavioral reshaping so your dog feels better around other dogs and teaches you confidence around your dog."
Then put the pieces back together one at a time------"teach your dog to walk nicely on a leash, teach him to walk nicely around other dogs on a leash, give him the tools to have better social skills... "

It makes things seem and FEEL much more manageable doesn't it..... So let's look for those broken parts and fix them to make you and your dog run smoothly !