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Here at my house we are preparing for another upcoming school year.
This isn’t an average, run of the mill, school year for us. This year, my youngest is entering Kindergarten and my oldest is heading off for his first year of college. Our family is about to go through some major changes. It won’t be easy. In fact, some of these changes will be quite difficult and stressful. But here’s the thing. Change is good. It is stressful, yes. But, it’s still good. Without change, without stress, we don’t grow. We don’t get better. Change, and the stress that accompanies it, can be a gift, as long as we allow ourselves to learn from the situation and don’t let the stress swallow us up. It’s going to be hard to see my son off to college. To leave him to learn and grow on his own without the safety net of his family right there. But it’s time. He’s ready. And I have no doubt that this will be good for him. I respect him enough to stand back and watch him take this journey. It’s going to be hard to send my youngest son off to school on the bus like I have his siblings before him. This little guy has had a rougher past than his siblings have. He has medical and emotional needs that are different. He has a traumatic history. But I need to let him go. He needs to know that I have faith in him. He needs to learn and grow and see what he can accomplish. My kids know I’m here for them if they need me. They also know that I am not going to rush in and save them every time their life gets messy. I have been a parent to a lot of children with a large range of differing needs over these last decades. One of the many things I’ve learned is that I don’t do my kids any favors by making life too easy for them. If I wrap them in bubble wrap, never let them make mistakes, and keep them away from anything remotely dangerous, they may be safe, but at what cost? I would be protecting them for my own peace of mind, not for their good. And they would lose out on many important life lessons. Life with our dogs can be similar. It can be hard to watch a dog go through stress. It can be difficult to watch our dogs battle with fear, aggression, or other issues. The rougher the dog’s past, the harder it can be to see him under stress. But without some stress, there is no growth. Sometimes we have to be firm as we help our dogs make progress. Sometimes we have to push our dogs forward, in spite of their past, so they can take the next step in their education or training. It’s always rewarding to watch a dog overcome an obstacle, whether it’s fear or something else. I love to watch as the successful dog prances back and forth in front of their “parents” with pride as if to say, “Did you see what I just did?” It’s truly enjoyable when we see the hard work, the change, pay off. We can help your dog overcome the problems you are experiencing. You too will find the peace and joy when you see the hard work, the change, pay off. Let us show you how. The first step is to schedule your free, no obligation evaluation. Click here to schedule your evaluation online now. You pick a day and time that works best for you. A trainer will meet with you and your dog (and anyone else that you would like involved in training) and go over some history, find out your training goals, and discuss training options. We can usually provide you with some free tips to help you start seeing immediate results. You can find out more about all our training options and get any questions you have answered. There is no pressure or obligation to buy anything. Here is the link to schedule your free evaluation: https://www.cleverk9mi.com/schedule-evaluation-session.html Happy Training!
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I have been sick for several weeks- so sick that I haven’t been able to eat much of anything or even drink a lot of my favorite beverages without debilitating pain.
Apparently, my gallbladder decided it was quitting its job. No notice or anything. It just decided to up and quit. Do you know what that means? It not only means that I couldn’t have meats, cheeses, or pastries, I wasn’t able to eat grains, fruits, or vegetables, either. It got so bad that I couldn’t tolerate soup. I was surviving on limited ingredient berry smoothies, plain nonfat yogurt, and plain rice. It wasn’t easy, but one of the worst things was that I wasn’t able to have coffee- for weeks! Last week, my gallbladder was removed. It took a couple of days before I was ready to introduce exciting things back into my diet. The most exciting thing that’s back? You guessed it- Coffee! So, what does this have to do with dog training, right? Often, I have clients that come to me out of desperation. Things they used to take for granted before cause stress now. They will tell me about their worry over what their dog will do when company comes over. Or, they talk about the difficulty they have taking their dog for a walk because he pulls, barks, or lunges at people or other dogs. Many of these clients had “good” dogs prior to the “problem” dog they have now. That only makes their awareness of what they lost even greater. When dogs have behavior problems, life is stressful. And not just for their humans. Life is stressful for the dogs as well. The good news is, it doesn’t have to continue that way. We can help. The first step is to schedule your free, no obligation evaluation. Click here to schedule your evaluation online now. You pick a day and time that works best for you. A trainer will meet with you and your dog (and anyone else that you would like involved in training) and go over some history, find out your training goals, and discuss training options. We can usually provide you with some free tips to help you start seeing immediate results. You can find out more about all our training options and get any questions you have answered. There is no pressure or obligation to buy anything. Here is the link to schedule your free evaluation: https://www.cleverk9mi.com/schedule-evaluation-session.html Happy Training! If you’ve been around kids for any amount of time, you probably realized that kids can ask a lot of questions.
It’s important, it’s how they learn. But that doesn’t mean it’s not exhausting for the person tasked with answering all the questions. My youngest son is currently in the "Why Phase." In case you don’t know what that is, it’s when a little kid asks "Why?" repeatedly to every statement someone makes - relentlessly. The "Why Phase" is one of my favorites, just kidding - not really. And the questions don’t stop as children get older. They just morph into new ones. Here are some questions my kids have asked me recently: "Mom, he’s touching me. Can you make him stop touching me?" "Mom, what’s for dinner? Can I just eat a handful of salt?" "Can I have a Popsicle now? Why do I have to wait until after dinner?" "Have you seen my shoes? Where are my socks? Do you know where my swimsuit is?" The questions are endless. My energy is running low. This takes me to the other day, where I was sitting in a waiting room next to a young mother with two small children. The children were asking questions pretty much nonstop. I was impressed with the mother’s ability to answer her children’s questions so well and still fill out the paperwork in front of her. I am not good at that anymore. I’ve been parenting young, inquisitive children continuously for over 20 years. At some point along the way, I stopped being able to focus on all the chatter. Don’t get me wrong, I hear the important stuff - usually. Although, sometimes the kids have to repeat themselves a couple of times. But more times than I’d like to admit, I completely tune them out. I don’t hear them. And it’s not like I’m trying to ignore them. Well, MOST of the time. So, what’s my point and what does this have to do with dog training? Well, dogs can get to the point where they tune us out, too! If we inundate our dogs with words, commands that we repeat over and over again, eventually our dogs stop listening. Often, we see dogs that only listen when their owners use a stern tone of voice. They completely tune out their owner’s kind requests to perform a behavior. The same dogs will perform the request well if the owner has a treat. You see the owner has their dog’s attention. One of the hardest things we teach people is to use fewer words when training their dogs. We train owners to make their words have meaning, instead of repeating commands in an endless stream of chatter. It is possible to get your dog to obey a command the first time you request it. And yes, without a treat. We can show you how. The first step is to schedule your free, no obligation evaluation. Click here to schedule your evaluation online now. You pick a day and time that works best for you. A trainer will meet with you and your dog (and anyone else that you would like involved in training) and go over some history, find out your training goals, and discuss training options. We can usually provide you with some free tips to help you start seeing immediate results. You can find out more about all our training options and get any questions you have answered. There is no pressure or obligation to buy anything. Here is the link to schedule your free evaluation: https://www.cleverk9mi.com/schedule-evaluation-session.html Happy Training! |
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