I’ve blogged before about how sometimes it’s easy to miss what’s right under our noses. Changes happen so slowly that we sometimes fail to see the process. Trees are a good one – you drive down the same stretch of road each day and then WHAM! One day you notice that the bare branches are now chock-full of bright spring leaves.
Dog training can be a lot like that. Walking the dogs the other day Annie kicked off at the sight of another dog on the other side of the road. Little Bear woofed a few times, but with a seriously lack of commitment which in no way matched her level of arousal. I walked him away calmly and despite her lunging and barking, he remained quiet and kept glancing up at me – which of course got him a lot of praise, clicks and treats.
Just like the tree, I’d missed the bud stage, but was pleased I’d at least spotted the unfurling leaf so that I could reward and encourage it. I took a lesson from that. Even when you think nothing’s happening, the time we all, if we’re honest feel like giving up, it’s good to remember that there’s progress being made that we just can’t see. Little buds of progress waiting to burst forth and surprise us.
The Little Bear Dog Blog 
Beautifully said. 🙂
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Very encouraging! I am SO happy I found your blog. Sometimes as a reactive dog owner I feel alone, especially when family and friends think I am crazy when I talk about all the training etc that I do with her. Yes, I agree with the setbacks-Oreo always seems to be making such progress for a few months then BAM she regresses. But you are right, we can’t stop trying!
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That’s so fantastic to hear and very glad it’s of help. So agree with you, having a reactive dog can be very isolating – when i started blogging I realised how many of us there are out there and that really helped to lift the feeling of isolation.
It sounds like you’re really committed to Oreo and that’s half the battle as we know 🙂
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