No one gets a dog and imagines living a stressful life. It does, however, sometimes end up that way, when our cute, cuddly dog begins to control the household and run our lives.
Dog training isn’t always so much about getting a dog to listen, but instead, for many, it’s about improving our own lives. Yes, we need our dog to listen, but we also need to learn how to enjoy having a dog.
Maintaining any relationship takes work.
This is no different with a dog.
Dogs can be demanding, stealing your attention away from the important things in your life. We often hear of situations where owner’s can’t sit and relax in their own home, can’t talk on the phone, can’t interact with their spouse, can’t do a zoom call for work, and can’t have people over without massive stress.
It usually starts out with our cute, cuddly dog showing their sweet side to get our attention. You know, the times when your dog comes over to you and gets you stop what you are doing to give them attention.
Dogs can be demanding to the point that the owner just gives in: giving attention, petting, praising, and treating in hopes it will satisfy the dog so the owner can get back to their task at hand… only for the dog to come back for more, demanding even more attention and never being content.
But it started out as just a simple compromise, right?!
Or maybe it’s your dog making their favorite mistake, knowing it will get you up from what you’re doing to address it, even if it’s to yell… hey, at least the dog got your attention - it worked!
Let this happen for any length of time (days, weeks, months, OMG hopefully not years!) and you’ve got a toxic relationship on your hands. Your dog shows their sweet side, you’re willing to give your dog whatever they want, and dog takes advantage. Rinse, repeat, daily life, and a toxic relationship is born from simple compromise.
And nobody gets a dog in hopes of having a this kind of relationship.
The same was true for Derek. When he got “Skip” he and his family had no idea that Skip was capable of making daily life so difficult. Thankfully, Derek reached out to us for help and we got to work right away. Skip wasn’t always easy, in fact, Derek had to work hard to help him. Skip liked to be rambunctious by jumping, mouthing, and biting. Having "down time" in the home was just not really possible with Skip around. It was like he was overly playful with a nice dose of being controlling.
Training is about improving your relationship with your dog. Dog training is about teaching the owner how to show the right stuff to their dog in order for their dog to respect them, mind them, and not try to control them.
Dog training is not as much about the dog, as it is about who the dog’s owner becomes in the process. You have to become the person (leader) your dog can respect. This is the nature of relationships...including relationships with dogs.
Dogs will use every inch of what you allow and what you are willing to tolerate; it’s their nature! This is why it is so important to have a standard for behavior, to have set rules that you enforce, and boundaries you do not allow to be crossed. I know dog owners want a good, healthy relationship with their dog, they just need a little help in getting there. They need the right knowledge clarified to them.
This is where we come in.
We show you what’s possible and help you define what the perfect picture with your dog should look like, and then we teach you what we need to do to get there.
Dog training is an investment in improving [yourself so that you can improve] your relationship with your dog, thus filling your life with enjoyment and a whole lot less stress. For the really stressed out, messed up dogs, this can easily be a journey to self-discovery for the person.
We helped Derek learn how to show Skip the right stuff so Skip could more easily understand what to do and how to do it. Great job to Derek and his family for taking the lead and improving their life with Skip!
Happy Training!
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