A ‘behavioral box’? What do I mean by this? Well lots of people put labels on dogs – a jumper, a barker, not good with other dogs, aggressive, afraid and so on. They seem to just accept that this is who their dog is.
You know what they say about that word ‘assume’. In the case of your dog, however, this can mean the difference between quality of life as well as length of life. Don’t assume anything. Most of all, don’t assume that there’s nothing you can do about behavior.
A favorite saying I found years ago goes like this–
“Don’t let the things you cannot do stop you from doing the things you can.”
~ Anonymous
Behavior is just that – behavior. It can be changed. Of course, one must know how to go about the process of changing behavior though and realize that it doesn’t happen in one fell swoop. As I’ve written before, it’s important to think in terms of bite-size chunks and not about the whole buffet of behavior. Let’s get to the individual ingredients if you will…
So you might be wondering what this has to do with a website devoted to playing with dogs. If a dog isn’t ‘good with other dogs’, how does playing with your dog help them to ‘get better’. Well, we must start somewhere.
Let’s begin by taking the pressure off both you and your dog. Loosen up. Have some fun. Don’t focus on the negative all the time. Look at your dog’s positive aspects. Focus there. Play is a very good place to start.
When you think about it, you too might agree that ‘play is the antidote to fear’. Fear is often that which gets both people and dogs stuck in a rut.
Do something. Don’t keep your dog in that ‘behavioral box’ all the days of his or her life.