The Outburst

The other day I made a fool of myself in public.

Yup, it was a stellar moment.

Let me tell you a little bit about it.

I was at one of my least favorite places, the Social Security Office.

It never fails, no matter how much documentation I bring in, it’s never enough.

Not once have I been able to walk in and have the process go well the first time.

To be fair, I never bring a standard case to the Social Security Office.

I have adopted several older children with complex histories.

The list of documents that the courts and adoption agencies give you to know what to bring to the Social Security Office is useless.

And finding a list online of what I need in my unique situation is difficult at best.

Changing my children’s names and social security numbers isn’t as cut and dry as getting a replacement card.

This time though, I was ready.

I had documentation in abundance, above and beyond anything they could possibly ask for- or so I thought.

I dutifully waited my turn and confidently handed my paperwork over to the staff member.

Then the questions started.

Another staff was called in to assist.

Court documents were turned away as unusable.

Something was wrong with the name I was providing.

I needed to provide a letter from the school stating our child’s pre-adoptive name and new name.

What?

Since when is that necessary to get a Social Security card?

How are the court documents not enough?

My patience was gone.

So was my usual cool and calm demeanor.

I began yelling at the staff members standing behind the window.

I knew that losing my temper wasn’t going to change anything, but it didn’t matter at that moment.

We’ve fought long and hard for this adoption.

It has taken so much longer than it should have.

There’s a lot of painful history caught up in the battle.

I was so relieved to finally be able to finish the last piece of this adoption and start life with our son finally sharing our name.

That all crumbled in front of me and I was angry.

I loudly complained the entire way out the door.

Now, of course nobody could know the whole story of what really went on.

All they knew was that some woman was leaving the building and making a scene the entire way out the door.  

Here’s the thing, outwardly I was angry. I was angry, true, but I was also disappointed, frustrated, fearful, and sad.

Anger was just the easiest and safest emotion to show at that moment.

Oftentimes, aggressive dogs behave similarly.

Most of the time, dogs that show aggressive tendencies are actually fearful.

It’s just safer to show aggression than fear.

When we train an aggressive dog, we work to teach the dog alternate behaviors to aggression.

Once a dog doesn’t have aggression to fall back on when they’re nervous we can start to see the root of the problem.

Quite likely, it will be fear.

That’s when we work on confidence building and relaxation training.

Nothing is a quick fix.

Training to overcome fear and aggression takes time and effort.

But it is achievable.

If you have a dog that has shown signs of fear or aggression, contact us.

We would love to help you and your dog experience the world in a new, confident way.

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!