I love a New Year. I love the anticipation of it, as I plan my yearly calendar and start setting goals for myself. I love the hope that a new year, a new birth, offers us.
What I’ve learned over the years, however, is that it is far too easy to let that excited and expectant feeling of a new year and a new you stay right where it is … on New Years Day, in the past and forgotten. Without setting up easy to remember habits and goals all of our planning will be for nought. Real changes take real work, and it’s the same when it comes to our dogs. One day of not being mindful with our dog can easily lead to two days and quickly lead to a week, a month and so it goes.
With the coming new year, I urge you to think about what simple changes we can implement with our dogs that will make real and lasting results. I think the best sort of habits will have these 5 simple ingredients.
- Calmness – Our instructions, teaching, praise and corrections will remain calm, predictable and straightforward to our dog.
- Committment – We will set out to finish what we start. A lot of people get hung up when something that they’re trying to accomplish with their dog doesn’t succeed in the first few minutes. Dog training is repetition. If you’re not committed to that repetition you’re going to have a hard time training your dog for the better!
- Respect – Your dog is living it’s own life. Think about that for a second. Your dog is living it’s own independent life full of his or her own emotions, opinions, joys, confusion etc. I’m not asking you to bow down or cater to your dog because of that, I’m just urging you to acknowledge and respect it.
- Genuine – Be genuine with your dog. If you are super proud of the work they are doing, don’t phone it in… let them know! The same thing goes for a correction, they’re not going to believe you if you don’t mean it!
- Planning – Plan ahead. If your dog is terrified of walking around other people or dogs then you might have to rearrange your schedule for awhile until they build up the confidence and trust in you to be exposed to more stressful situations. Wake up ten minutes earlier if that’s the time you need to properly walk your dog.
Start thinking about these ingredients in your relationship with your dog, and see what changes happen when you become more aware of their effects.