I open my eyes to see Petra, my five-year-old Australian shepherd, in her usual place, sleeping by my side of the bed. Lifting the covers, I whisper her name. In an instant she is snuggled beside me, her back pressed against my chest and tummy, her head nestled under my chin. I put my arm around her, and we both doze, filling our hearts with the warmth of quiet connection.
We can learn from our dogs, if we pay attention.
Changing behavior - ours or our dog's - takes time. It is rarely a straight forward process with a steady progression of hiccup-free improvement. We start, we stop, we try, we get sidetracked, we reinvest effort, we get tired - that’s just the way of it.
But sometimes, often without even being aware, we fall into a relational dance with our dog, and only a moment of clarity (or a forced moment of review) shows us what has happened.
Training is not natural. He’s an animal, he should be free to do what he wants.
“Fault judging” is a term I read about years ago in a dog book whose title I have long forgotten. The term means to look for the faults in the dogs being judged – something the author makes a strong case against. He points out that all dogs have faults but that greatness in a dog is not defined by an absence of faults but rather by the presence of virtues. And that fault judging – honing your eye to seek out each flaw – can blind you to seeing greatness.
We all get into to habits of speaking that can go unexamined for years. The really old habits can be hard to see since we wear them like a spiritual skin; they can feel like a part of who we are. They usually are not. Usually they are just habits formed without awareness or choice in a time when we had to do something or were learning by example.
Managing mood is a part of every life, but for people who both tend animals and teach adults, two things almost every dog pro does, managing mood effectively can mean the difference between success and struggle, quality care and less-than-your-best.
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