Training your dog is not “All or Nothing!”

Training your dog is not “All or Nothing”!

Please don’t expect perfection.

Right now, a guy is using big metal noisy ladders to climb the side of our house and clean the gutters. The blower is loud. Very loud and very close to the windows. This started with a doorbell and intermittently, my husband has gone out to talk to him. Rae has barked on and off. “The guy is too close!”, she’d say, “Look at him! He’s got that big blower thing! I hate that noise!”

I would reassure her but not by telling her “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.” in some coddling, frantic way. Instead, I would just take a look with her, tell her it’s okay, distract her a bit or take her with me. Sometimes, I had her in a down or asked her to lay on her side, a calming position.

Did it take a little extra time? Yes. More than normal because she has a cast on and can’t exercise so she tends to overreact a little. But I don’t. I just stay calm. I listen to her. I look outside with her. I use what she knows to calm her down.

Sometimes our expectations can be too high. We want a dog to alarm us but only when it’s convenient for us! It doesn’t’ work that way. There is give and take.

If you want your dog to stop and think before reacting, you need to do the same.

Your dog is a living, breathing and thinking being that deserves respect.

Thanks for watching and reading and now I’d love to hear from you.

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