Unlocking Your Dog's Potential: Why Repetition is Key to Mastery
Preview
1. People make the mistake of attempting challenging tasks with their dogs before they have fully mastered the basics.
2. While performing the basics with your dog may feel tedious, a solid foundation is crucial in teaching your dog advanced skills such as off-leash recall from any distance.
3. Taking the same 20 minute walk with your dog every day can make a significant difference
4. When dealing with anxiety or reactivity, taking the same 20 minute walk every day provides an opportunity to anticipate and redirect your dog's focus.
5. By being aware of potential triggers, you can lead your dog to focus on the walk and you, rather than whatever might cause problems for them.
6. Consistently playing the "Ready? Get It!" Game every morning is a simple and enjoyable way to build focus in your dog.
Unfortunately, many people stop playing the game after a few weeks. However, by playing this three-minute game for several months, your dog will develop focus with a marker word that works even in high distraction environments. Over time, this focus will become automatic
7. In order to address and change anxiety or reactivity in ourselves and our dogs, it requires practice and repetition.
Taking a brief moment to pause between the stimulus and response, and consciously choosing a calm and confident reaction, is crucial. This process of un-wiring the reactive response and replacing it with a new, calm and confident response takes time and repetition.
8. Calming the Chaos
Join me in Calming the Chaos a 30 Day Experiment to help both you and your dog get over anxiety and reactivity and get back to having more fun in life again.
No comments.