My Dog is My Safe Spot

    Over the years, I have found people reserve their dog in a separate space; reserved for unconditional love.

   Our lives are full of expectations, rules, CC&R's, speed limits, contracts, and responsibilities. A dog has zero rules on us, with no judgment of our failures, our looks, or our financial status. Your dog will never fire you or divorce you, and despite their size, will protect you vigilantly from harm. So, our initial human response is to reward this amazingly loving, forgiving, understanding and tolerant behavior with unconditional love in return; meaning extra treats, no rules, and complete free will of all our space. After all, no one else in our life is so accepting as our dog!

    However, although our dogs don't show signs of judgement (in our human psychological terms) they do mirror our lacking postures by displaying imbalance in their behavior. Whining, chewing, barking, growling, pulling on a leash, jumping, licking....not all necessarily normal dog behavior as much as reactions to unbalanced human behavior lacking boundaries and guidelines for your dog.

    You do not need to become the most patient and tolerant person in the world to get dogs to react calmly. In my webinars, I share 5 simple tips that can immediately improve your dogs behavior, and the benefits reflect on you as well.

    In training dogs, I see success in the clients that truly want to have their dogs behave better, or differently, and are ready to realize they may need to reorganize some of their own techniques to reap the benefits of a calm dog.

 Sometimes I have even met the client that enjoys the anxiety or over excitability in their dog because they relate it to affection and love for themselves. Although I explain a calm dog still shares the same amount of love and that anxiety and excitement mixed together will usually lead to the behavior that they do not like...(jumping, growling, barking, etc.) they still opt for nurturing this antic because they can't bare to lose that overly expressed affection from the dog.

It always feel good to have a dog love you. Love always feels good. However, when the love is right, or stable, or balanced...it flows easily, and calmly... even for a dog.