Enjoy Your Dog
It’s Monday! That means another video. Actually two, because I didn’t share the one from last week.
What Will the Neighbors Think
I’m getting to know my neighbors fairly slowly. Today, a dog was across the street, as I was taking Jeeves on his solo walk without Lexi, and Jeeves has gotten louder and more persistent in his barking at other dogs, so we stopped and worked some engage/disengage in front of a house – where I didn’t realize that a man was sitting on the porch.
I’m always embarrassed by these moments, and I’m not entirely sure why.
A few months ago, in another neighborhood, I was walking Lexi, and she stopped to roll in something dead, I think a worm, and I squealed, “What are you doing?? That is disgusting!!” and I looked up to see a person sitting on a stoop, laughing. Which is the relief moment, honestly.
I did a series on embarrassment because I’m regularly embarrassed by my dogs. I don’t want people to see me in my very human moments and criticize me for being a bad dog trainer, whatever the reason. When walking my own dogs sometimes, I throw on sweatshirts sometimes instead of changing out of my “dog trainer” shirt not so people don’t ask me questions about dog training but that people don’t judge me for the things I’m doing.
Even though there’s nothing wrong with the things I’m doing, and I can’t control what other people think, I’m afraid of looking up and seeing judgment on their faces and absorbing that and taking it with me. And I know my clients feel the same way, especially if there are challenging behaviors present.
So I don’t want to be in front of someone’s home where they’re sitting out on the porch while my dog is getting a really good sniff in on their front yard, one they don’t want to leave. I don’t want to see the people if my dog spots a cat or a squirrel or another dog and verbalizes their excitement or starts to pull before I can redirect the behavior.
Because even though I’m a dog trainer and a lot of the time I can make training look easy because of the hours upon hours I’ve practiced, I’m still also a human being who worries too much about what other people think and sometimes I get caught off guard and my dog is over threshold and ignoring me.
The person who saw me dismayed by my dog being gross by rolling on a dead worm was delighted by the interaction – seeing a fun moment of humanity vs. dog instead of a failure in dog management. And I believe more people than not see those moments that way. That’s how I felt when I saw a distressed woman chasing down a poodle having a very good time running away and hiding behind a jeep. What a human little moment, what a fun little doggy personality moment, and if she could have disconnected her embarrassment from her dog just having a good time, she could have turned it into a game instead and gently grabbed her dog so much sooner without all of the excitement and frustration.
And I need to remember that more. So do my clients. And most people with dogs in general.
We get so stuck on the commands and the manners and what’s socially acceptable that we lose sight of the cute moments, the beautiful moments, our human little moments colliding with fun little doggy personality moments with the animals we’ve taken out of the environments they were bred to thrive in and forced into our homes.
Most people don’t mind I’m in front of their home with my dogs on the sidewalk.
Today, we struck up a conversation when he asked me if I had a ton of dogs or if I was a dog walker, and I said yes and no, explaining I do have several dogs, but I’m a dog trainer instead, not a dog walker. He shared about the dog he used to have, and how he wants to get another one soon once he figures out if he’s staying in his current home or finding another. He’s not from around here either, but he’s been in Arkansas for ten years, and did I know a big burly guy named Justin?
The Photos
Why I’m Doing This Series
As I’ve mentioned in previous videos, I’ve been struggling to enjoy my dogs over the past year, as I’ve noticed I’ve started to dread walks and training and spending time with them, so I wanted to find some easy, fun, affordable ways to rebuild. Over the next two months, everything will be Halloween themed, and we’ll tackle a bunch of different boxes, activities, and crafts. So far, we’ve unboxed a Bark Box, we’ve analyzed a Chewy shipment for an auction fundraiser, and we failed with a “go to place” cue. Now, here’s an unboxing of the APDT box from the conference they held last week, and the October Bark Box (Barkfest in bed!). Next week, we’ll do some spooky treats.
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Want more? Follow me on social media or check out my podcast, Telltail Dog, wherever you listen to your favorites! My mission to to make dog training accessible to pet parents trying to do right by their dogs. I design all of my marketing around the questions that my clients are asking and the problems they are facing, and I humanize my work as much as possible. What are you doing to enjoy your dogs this week? Tag me in your photos and videos with #telltaildog and @telltaildog.
