Emma says: In any healthy relationship between a handler and a dog, the human needs to be the one to make all the important decisions in her dogs life. Most dogs will naturally assume the leadership role if there is no obvious hierarchy present.
Do I not teach this to all of my students, do I not tell all my students that they are in control of all of the good things in their dog’s lives?
Emma goes on to say: If the human allows this to happen, the dog feels that he is the one in charge and subsequently, that he has to discipline other members of the family. Dogs are likely to discipline in the most direct way they know how: with their teeth!
Oh My DOG!!! Now we know from my last post that I already knew that it was my lack of leadership for my dogs that has cause the little miss we are in. But to have read that and not connected those dots before the fight, what on earth was I thinking. Am I really getting that old or have I just lost my touch?
I think touch is going in the right direction, not that I have lost mine but that I have become out of touch with myself. What is a day off? I seriously have to ask that question because I’ve not had one in several years. Even last year when we went to Disney I was still answering texts in the lines for our rides and constantly checking emails. Is it any wonder why I’m so burned out??
Please no one take this the wrong way, I love what I do and that is why I am over working myself but if I keep it up I won’t have anything to give to you guys. I do appointments Sunday-Friday and spend Saturday planning and trying to catch up on emails and homework notebooks. My days start about 5:30am and run to about 7pm between doing admin work and appointments. Most days I have about 5-7 training sessions, so it’s easy to say, I’m a little tired. So when I get home it’s time to put Ian to bed and time for me to crawl into bed myself. Is there any wonder why I live life looking for my next cup of coffee? LOL. I say all of this to say that when I do get home I have very little to no mental energy to pour into my own 3 dogs.
The change is going to have to start with me, if it’s going to flow down into my dogs and it has to flow down into my dogs, they need me and I need them too. I guess it’s time to slow down some and take some time for me and recharge my batteries I am going to have to learn to say No and set a schedule and stick to it. Can I possibly do that?? I’m going to have to, my dogs need me to, and they deserve to get just as much from me and I ask from them. After all isn’t that what I try to teach my students, a mutual bond of respect?
My life needs to be brought back in to balance I think this year is the best year to do it. Here’s to 2020 the year of Zen and Balance! I’m going to live my vision of dog training!!!
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