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Happy Birthday Little Blog

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on February 21, 2021| 1 Comment »

The Little Bear Dog Blog, that thing I started writing just so that I could witter on about dogs without getting crossed off party invitation lists is ELEVEN years old today.

We didn’t even have our darling Annie when I started blogging, although the campaign for a companion for Bear was already in full swing.

Annie will be fifteen in August, Bear fourteen in June. That we still have them is such a blessing. It’s hard to imagine life without them, so I try not to. We focus instead on the good stuff, the cuddles, the playtimes and a thousand and one happy memories.

Happy Birthday little blog.

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Happy Birthday Little Blog

Posted in Dog ponderings, Dog training, Dogs, Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 21, 2020| 1 Comment »

Mini Schnauzer stands with front feet on a table, wearing a party hat and looking at a bone shaped cake

Birthday boy

Ten years ago today The Little Bear Dog Blog was born. It was a cold, wet February afternoon when I set up the WordPress account and in all honesty, I thought I’d probably only post a few times. It was just an experiment and never in a million years did I expect people to actually read my ramblings. But here we are, ten years, 152 posts and thousands of readers later.

Thank you

To everyone who’s read, liked, commented on or shared posts over the years – thank you so much.  Your time is precious and I’m so grateful for the time you took to be a part of our story.

I can’t of course leave out the beautiful little soul who inspired the blog. Had Little Bear been the ‘take anywhere’ dog I’d been expecting, I very much doubt that I would have taken to blogging as a way of processing the realities of life with a reactive dog.

They say that our greatest challenges are our greatest teachers. Little Bear and Annie have certainly been great teachers! But above all, they’ve taught me the power of unconditional, unwavering love. How blessed I’ve been.

I have no idea how many more blog posts we’ll have – time waits for no man, woman or dog, so we’ll take each day as it comes and be grateful for every single one we get to share with them.

“There is nothing truer in this world than the love of a good dog.” Mira Grant 

 

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Happy birthday TLBDB

Posted in Behaviour, Dog training, Dogs, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 26, 2019| 1 Comment »

 

Little Bear on sofa with his teddy

Little Bear’s first blog picture in 2010

Wow! The Little Bear Dog Blog is (drumroll please) NINE years young!  How can that possibly be?  But yep, sure enough, my very first ‘Hello World’ post is dated 21 February 2010 which means Little Bear was just two and a half when I started. Happy belated birthday little blog!

While I’ve not been the most consistent blogger over the years, I love that so much of our journey has been recorded.  Living and loving reactive dogs is a massive challenge and human nature means that we’re great at remembering the bad stuff, but not so great at remembering the good things.

In the early days I was definitely on the quest for the ‘cure’ – the training method, diet, supplement, harness, magic talisman (I added that for effect, but I got really close to being tempted!), that would transform my highly strung super-sensitive nutcase into the chilled dog I had so wanted.

It took me a long time and a lot of learning to be okay with the fact that he would never be a ‘take-anywhere dog’, not because I’d ‘failed’ in some way in not finding the holy grail of dog behaviour modification or scrimped on his training hours or socialisation, but because that’s just not how he’s wired.

I certainly made plenty of mistakes along the way, but looking back, I think we’ve done okay.  Suzanne, a very dear friend of mine who, thanks to her own journey with her own super-reactive dog is now a brilliant trainer, joined us in the woods for a walk the other week with her chilled Cockapoo Barney.

Watching LB meet lots of new dogs (pre-vetted by me obviously), play in puddles, carry sticks and clown around with her lad, she gave us the highest compliment ever, “Wow, he’s just like a ‘normal dog’, she said.  Now THAT I’m going to remember. Well done Little Bear! x

 

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Little Bear with his pals 2019 

 

 

 

 

 

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A better road

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 25, 2015| 3 Comments »

Annie and Little Bear with their friend Grace

Annie and Little Bear with their friend Grace

Oh my poor neglected blog. Seven whole months on its lonesome, twiddling its pixels in cyber space wondering if this was it, the thing every blog dreads – the last post.

Well, despite my tardiness, TLBDB, now in its fifth year, need not fear, I have no intentions of abandoning it. I have though come to accept that my posts may not be quite so frequent as they once were.

My less frequent updates are due to a couple of factors.  Finding a group of people locally who are all living and working with reactive dogs has been an enormous help, not just for the opportunity to socialise our dogs, but to find support from people who really, genuinely understand the challenges.

Working for myself also means that I now get paid to write. Admittedly, I don’t get paid to write about dogs, but you never say never!

Little Bear and Annie have come such a long way and continue to be a source of joy and hilarity.  They still have issues and we’ve come to realise that when working with fearful dogs, there’s rarely ever a destination, just a better quality of road.

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Blogstraction – the new procrastination

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on May 7, 2014| 6 Comments »

Fellow bloggers, hands up anyone who’s been overcome with an absolute burning desire to write a blog post at the exact same time that you ‘should’ be doing something else?  That report you need to finish writing?  Housework to do? Cat needs a bath? (I was joking on that last point)

Right now I should be writing an article I’m planning on pitching to a newspaper but, what do you know? I can’t possibly start until this urgent post is out-of-the-way!  I know.  Pathetic isn’t it?  I’m fully aware that I’m distracting myself because blogging is safe and rewarding (who in their right mind wouldn’t want to write about dogs all day?!) but pitching new ideas to scary editors is, well, scary!

So that my wasted ten minutes isn’t completely wasted, I’ve coined a new term purely for my own amusement:

Blogstraction – the act of writing blog posts as a distraction. 

There. Post done. I’ll just make another cuppa before I tackle that article….

 

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When Life gets in the way…

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 7, 2012| 4 Comments »

Little Bear the Mini Schnauzer

Little Bear

I’m thinking of writing a stiff letter to Life.  I think I’ve been incredibly tolerant up until now but something really has to be said about the way it relentlessly interrupts my training plans. And please, don’t even get me started on its effect on my blogging schedule…

I’m joking of course, but it’s a nice thought isn’t it?  ‘Excuse me Life, but can you just butt out for a while? I have dogs to train. We’re on a schedule you know.’

Curve ball

My mother was taken suddenly and critically ill recently and in the space of one phone call everything changed. Life jumped on us from a great height and we had no choice but to let it.  Thankfully she made a remarkable recovery and when I returned home nearly two weeks later, (to a thorough telling off by Little Bear and what I can only describe as a giggle dance from Annie) the dogs and I picked up where we left off.

Surrender

I’ve used Churchill’s famous quote about ‘never ever giving up’ many a time and it’s still something that inspires me and spurs me on when I’m tired and down-hearted. I’ll never stop striving for the best for my dogs, but I am willing to give up on something – the idea that I have to do it all perfectly and that if I don’t, then I’m somehow letting them down.

If you have a reactive dog, let alone two, you know what hard work they can be.  The dream is something most other dog owners take for granted; a quiet stroll in the park, a coffee at a pavement cafe without it causing a scene. It’s not a big dream but getting there takes a lot of work.

Little Bear and Annie have come such a long way. The work is working and we will persist, but I’m going to tear up that draft letter and tell Life that it’s okay. I understand. It has to do its thing and that’s fine. Whatever it throws at us, well, we’re just going to work around it.

 

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Blogger’s block

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 4, 2012| 4 Comments »

I write all day. I’m lucky in that my day job is in corporate communications so I’m paid to write speeches; copy; briefings; articles and press releases. And yet when I finally turn off the PC for the day and get on with the usual chores of eating dinner (notice I didn’t say cooking  ;-)) walking, playing and feeding the dogs and then trying to create  some semblance of order in the house, the itch to write is constantly with me, pulling at my sleeve like an incessant toddler.

I’ve often pondered on this. I doubt decorators come home from a long day and get the urge to get the paint rollers out again and I’ve known many a teacher who bolts the door for fear of even seeing another child in the next twelve hours so what’s going on?

Expression

My only conclusion is that most writers are driven by a need for expression.  The need for people to read what I’ve written is nowhere near as important to me as the need to commit my thoughts to paper or pixel.  A purging almost of the mind and soul, it doesn’t need to be read in order to matter as far as I’m concerned – I just need to do it.

I may write all day but on the whole they’re not my words. I’m a ghost stepping into another’s shoes to write speeches; I’m a saleswoman pitching an idea in my copy; I’m a teacher marking the homework of the agencies whose work I edit with a bleeding pen through clenched teeth. I’m many people, except of course the most authentic one – Me.

Writer’s block

I sat down this afternoon desperate to write. Dogs walked; laundry done; ironing ignored for another day, I opened up WordPress and – nothing.  Not a single idea for the Little Bear Dog blog.

My creative writing teacher once told us the only way to overcome writer’s block was to write.  His was a generous take on the problem as he saw nothing wrong in including shopping lists in his suggested cure for the dreaded block.  I’ve not veered that far from the path today, but it has helped – I hope regular readers will forgive the digression.

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