Dog Life: The Power of Repetition

In Calming the Chaos we are practicing a few things over and over for 30 days. Here's the deal when it comes to your dog... most people want advanced skills way before they ever got the simple ones down. This Experiment is all about changing that up.

Take for instance an off leash recall (come when called) from anywhere. If your dog can't come to you from 5 feet way in a quiet room CONSISTENTLY, there's no way she can come to you from your driveway, while a women, her dog and stroller walks by, the Amazon delivery guy shows up, or any other distractive situation comes up.

You've got to start with the simplest of tasks and get so good at it that you as you add distractive situations and distance, the same exact simple performance happens.

When it comes to training your dog to come to you every time, start with the Ready? Get It! Game and perfect it. Make it a simple 3 minute morning routine. Then add more repetitions of it throughout the day.

Just like Micheal Jordon who shot free throws every single day. Simple skill. But it's foundational. Always practice fundamentals. The advanced happens naturally from getting really good at fundamentals.

Here's a link to the Ready? Get It! Game. Do this every day and you'll soon have a dog that gives you his attention no matter what's going on whenever you say (dog name) Ready?....

Anxiety is a practiced behavior. It has huge power. It comes from past practice. In order to change it you have to become present.

Simple actions like taking a moment to breath. Don't react like you always react. Stop the "Alarm" going off in your head and replace it with a simple action that takes you one step closer to what you truly want the outcome to be.

Every time you obsess about what can go wrong, you're actually manifesting the worst case scenario coming true.

What happens if you practice a simple thing to do every single time you feel that "oh no" this is gonna go wrong feeling?

You re-wire your brain, your reaction and ultimately the outcome. You are the leader of you and you're the leader of your dog... dogs love routine. Instead of reacting to bad behavior, act with repetition of a very simple thing to do.

What do you want your dog to do? Focus on that. Direct towards that. i.e: dog jumping, tell your dog to sit instead of chattering a bunch of don't do this and don't do that... take a very simple action. Repetitively.

Basically, it's the Ready? Get It! Game repeated in a lot of different contexts.

You can yell, "NO, stop doing that." or you can get attention, "Ready?"... then direct where/what you'd like your dog to do.

All of the little things that drive your crazy about yourself, or your dog's behavior... you've practiced. Over and over.

Switch up your go-to's. Instead of constantly practicing a bad habit which leads to anxiety every single time...

Do more of what you want.

If you react in fear, frustration, anger, instead take a moment and breath. Practice calm. Then...

Demonstration before explanation works. In other words, stop reacting with words like No, stop doing that. Go into action.

In the case of your dog. Take "No" out of the conversation completely. Pretend you have to show your dog what to do with no words. Do that. You'll have started the practice of perfect practice makes permanent verses practicing bad habits over and over again.

Here's one of the best habits you could develop with your dog: The daily walk. So many benefits for both you and your dog.

It's an anxiety buster.

It's a simple practice that done repetitiously builds calm, confident, playful outcomes.

Join us here: Dog Life Unleashed