The pressure we can put on ourselves and our dogs to have/be the ‘perfect dog’ can actually cause you and the dog a lot of stress, pressure, frustration and upset.
We often feel a lot of judgement about our dogs behaviour and it can make you feel like you are getting it wrong or that you are a bad dog owner.
I totally get that, so today I wanted to relieve you of that pressure and say to you - the perfect dog doesn’t exist!
What does exist are dogs that have many different personality types - some will cope well in stressful situations and are naturally very calm and relaxed.
Most dogs however will ask lots questions everyday and even more in situations they are unsure of. They can display behaviours such as howling, barking, jumping up, lunging, pulling on the lead, chewing, panting, aggression, humping, refusal to walk, tugging on the lead. refusing to eat.
It’s how we answer these questions that is very important! With some dogs our answers will take lots of convincing, time, consistency and patience, building up slowly to help the dog be as calm and relaxed as possible, in each situation.
Once we understand that the behaviours they are displaying are not naughty but questions around the situation you can start to deal with them in a much better, calmer way and stop feeling embarrassed and frustrated about not having the perfect 'robot' dog.
So weather it be:
separation anxiety
resource guarding
pulling on the lead
aggression
constantly following you around
fussing eating
jumping up at people
nipping
toileting inside
excessive barking
See these behaviours as questions and learn how to answer them. When you learn how you feel more confident and calmer as you have the understanding and knowledge of what to do, which in turn makes your dog calmer too.
Having the knowledge and understanding about how your dog thinks, why they display undesirable and how to deal with them won’t ever give you the 'perfect dog' but it will give you a dog that is much calmer, relaxed and stress free - how wonderful would that be?
If you want to have a chat about your dog and their undesirable behaviours I am currently offering free 30 min coaching calls. You can book yours in HERE
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