02/12/2020
This uses some funny language but it’s oh so true and a great reminder of how much patience goes into raising a best friend ...
🦄 Being a dog trainer is a privilege!
I write this as on this day 5 years ago, I had just done my first ever training class as a business!
I'm not going to lie. As someone's whose main bread and butter five years on is doing seminars on disc and trick stuff and stunt dog performances, 2020 has been a bit of a shart!
But one good thing has come out of this. Despite being in national lockdown still, I have my dogs.
My dogs are my life. They are limbs. They aren't pets. Kids doesn't do them justice. Family is a bare minimum. Colleagues and friends don't even give them enough credit.
Without them I'm not me. Many people I know and close friends have been through hell and back this year, losing family, friends and their dogs.
When people see Bets perform, they see the polished end result. They see almost 9 years of blood, sweat, tears and jublication. They see the destination.
They don't see the times I felt the worst hooman ever letting her down when she was severely dog reactive. Or when she broke her leg. Or when she went for another dog as a 7 month old pup. Or the time she spectacularly failed her silver test, because I for some reason thought it would be a good idea after sitting on a train for almost 8 hours 😂 Or the times when I wore waterproof trousers and double layers of clothing plus wellies as her puppy biting phase was... Erm... Intense... I still have the scars 😳😱😱😱😱 Or the time had a p**p as a pup in the conservatory and then ran through it so it was covered in s**t, and I left the mop and bulk buy of dettol at the other side resulting in me having to chuck a pair of socks away 😂😂😂
I was driven to copious amounts of wine and chocolate in her younger years and now I'm reaping the rewards and have a well balanced, almost bombproof dog that pretty much gives 150% no matter what she does.
When they see Milo and his sweet oh butter wouldn't melt face, when he's acing public access training and can settle for long periods of time under extremely high distraction and picks up new stuff practicing sports foundations so quickly it's insane... They don't see the utter desperation when I have convinced myself he has far more than just one bladder as he marks the unit for the oh I dread to think number of times... Or the amount of work I have put in to convince him that lorries won't munch puppies for breakfast simply by their presence.
Or the amount of highly qualified behaviour professionals that me, a dog trainer has seen to try and help him sleep through the night without marking or singing the sound of his people (my poor neighbours) or wanting to chew through the fence so he can go and annoy the pretty girl dog next door. Or the tears I have had deliberating on whether he should have the inplant or full blown castration and accepting the fact he needed a short course of drugs to help him catch up on sleep so crucial to his development and anxiety about what the neighbours must be thinking about me trying to tame the black and white fluffy tazmanian devil 😂👿
Oh you did good there Milo. Angel pupper, than BAM hormones hit!
I deffo joked about you luring me into a false sense of security and pow, you deffo did that.
But we are starting to come out the other end of the tunnel, slowly but surely I can see the light. And we will get there.
Dog training isn't quick. It isn't sexy. It isn't about showing off to your peers. Whilst it's important to show what is possible, we need to have fuller transparency about what these common issues are really like.
Have you ever slid face down into wet mud in a unicorn onsie barefoot in hail at 2am as your pup needed a poo and then when you get up you hear him wiggle into the shed and can't get out but he's loudly complaining of the indignity whilst you are trying to blindly scoop him out in the black dark as quickly as possible as you are having visions of being reported to environmental health?
No? You haven't lived!
When we work with clients, it's easy to get fixated on the destination. The end result. Creating client compliance when the road is quite frankly hard fecking work but with strict adherence to force free ethical training and a team of multidisciplinary qualified professionals working together to consistently and effectively plow the journey forward whilst not compromising on ethics is SO IMPORTANT for long term results, not only as a solution but your relationship with your pup.
And that guys is KEY.
DOGGY TEENAGERS, ESPECIALLY BOYS, ARE K***S!
.. Or more accurately, their insanely fluturating hormones are!
Do you know puppy blues is a thing? If you feel overwhelmed, get in contact with a trusted, experienced, skilled and qualified force free trainer and/or behaviourist.
It does not make you a bad owner. I've been there. I can emphasise on how hard it can be, especially when people left right and center seem to think they know best. Listen to the peeps that put thousands of £££ and hours into developing themselves. Not just for their clients, but their own dogs.
Those guys have been there, done that and got the t shirt and survived and still, amazingly want to help you too as they have been in the situation themselves.
We have a huge culture of instant gratification, no more so than in dog training. We talk about dog frustration tolerance far too much and not enough about improving hoomans.
This can really hinder client compliance as their is that expectation of a magic wand we can wave over the issue, and when we tell people long slogs of hard work are involved peeps tend to get deflated and defensive.
Do not let our culture compromise your care in your training. We talk about showing up. It's not enough to show up. You need consistency, care, client compliance and consideration as well.
The burden of behaviour modification is on you.
Not the dog.
They have needs and emotions that should be central to your plan, when you help your client meet those, you will help your client meet their own too.
Teenage dogs are hard work.
But they can't help it.
They are sentiment beings and behind every behaviour their is an emotion. Behind every emotion there is a need.
That is the priority.
I knew Bets would be hard work. By god she was. Now I'm reaping the rewards.
Milo is hard work sometimes, but I'm a dog trainer and I knew what I was getting into.
I know it's only temporary, and soon I'll be at that point with him too!!!
To all clients having a hard time with their teenage pups - I get it, milo has utterly whooped my arse.
Dog trainers, we need to be more transparent and stop pretending it's a walk in the park too.
Share the of your journey.
These dogs make us better trainers, without them to push us to better our development, we would probably be s**te.
Be thankful for your canine teenage nutcase. They are there to keep your ego in check and prevent complacency :)
Savour every naughty moment. They aren't on this planet long enough, and when they start to go grey, you will look back on those times and laugh.
Big hugs to anyone out there struggling, you got THIS.
IT WILL BE WORTH IT!
Ruby, Betsy and Milo Too
Big thanks to Tasha at Miyagis Dog Training and Behaviourist Services for keeping me sane over the last few months!
