As my dad would often say, “take it slow”

I find myself sharing with my clients wise words from my father, “take it slow” when they want to rush to get the skill learning done, they want to move on to the next thing or they overbook themselves leaving them feeling frustrated when their dog “isn’t getting it.”

What do you receive from rushing around?

Do you receive feeling frantic, not meeting your expectations of your already overloaded schedule, inconsistent routine with your dog which only exacerbates your dog practicing habits that aren’t healthy?

What keeps you in the struggle are your outdated patterns and beliefs that if you “have time to lean, you have time to clean” mentality.

The idea that every hour of your day has to be filled with “things to do” so you can go to bed exhausted and then do it all over again.

What if, you made the choice to prioritize taking things slow?

By slowing down and being present and in the moment, you create more space and time for yourself and your dog.

You begin to experience living in the moment like your dog gets to do everyday.

Your dog can guide you into doing the same for yourself, living presently and with awareness of what each moment brings.

You get to become proactive versus reacting to what’s showing up.

You are able to experience joy, connection and ease when you prioritize what you value the most, spending time with the people and the animals you love, trust and find solace in their presence.

I invite you to see how you can take a moment today in spending time with your dog and yourself and experience what sensations show up for you both when you take things slow.

Did you observe any shifts?

Feel free to share in the comments or send me a message!

What’s Holding You Back?

You’re in tears because your beloved dog bit you, not once, but several times.

Your entire family is angry and mistrusts your dog. They don’t even want to go near him.

You’re now recognizing that manhandling and overpowering your dog isn’t working and see how detrimental this way of life is for everyone involved, including your dog.

You’re wanting to do things differently, but you feel you’ve been moving in the wrong direction for years.

At the heart of the matter, you desire to trust and have confidence in yourself to make the change.

You’re hesitant.

The leap of faith rests on your willingness to believe in what you can achieve.

It first starts with trust.

Are you willing to trust yourself?

Trust in yourself that you can heal your relationship with your dog.

Trust in committing to creating new habits and receiving support from a professional behavior consultant who is there for you and your dog.

Are you willing to put aside the old ideas of dogs needing to be “dominated” and “controlled” and show your dog kindness through a gentler approach?

Being stuck in this space of not wanting to go backward, but nervous and uncertain about moving forward is your crossroads.

Where will you go from here?

The only way you’ll build confidence is by taking action.

You certainly can do this on your own, but receiving support can help you get to where you want to go more efficiently and effectively even through you and your dog’s growth cycles of learning.

What do you want to do?

If you’re willing to take the leap of faith on yourself, set up your Discovery Call.

The Way Forward is Heart Centered and Empathetic

Sean-C (left) and Dustin (right) having a blast with one another.

Prioritizing the emotional connection of their dogs allows everyone in the household to have safe and kind interactions with their dogs.

Catharine is the mom of 4 kids (toddlers to teens) and 2 adolescent dogs!

A busy and sometimes chaotic house, but one that’s filled with lots of love and compassion.

Witnessing them through some ups and downs and seeing how they are heart centered and prioritize their relationships over everything else not only melted my heart, but continued to reaffirm for me, being empathetic and understanding what’s going on “underneath” the surface of how not only their 2 legged, but their 4 legged kids are expressing their feelings is the embodiment of a benevolent leader.

Catharine modeled this relationship style, by guiding her middle child into learning about what their youngest dog, Dustin was feeling too in a non judgmental and curious way.

This extends further as Catharine and her family took their time in bringing their dogs together. They recognized what each dog needed (sometimes different than the other) and did greetings and short periods of time together.

They took time to observe body language, arousal levels and what each one was communicating (they shared that they experienced a brief moment of resource guarding and immediately took action to trade up, lovingly redirect, remove the item and allow for resume of interaction).

Catharine also shared her toddlers, Remi and Logan may not have seen eye to eye with Dustin, but with Catharine’s gentle parenting, she provides her dogs and kids options.

Both Logan and Remy were empowered to make the choice to go into the x pen on their own when they wanted a break from Sean-C and Dustin’s play time antics.

Remy (left) and Logan (right)

What clever kids and for them to feel they can take action to feel more comfortable when things became more raucous with the dogs.

This family integrated the learning they did through their program with me while making it their own.

Focusing on how everyone feels and guiding all the family members into feeling, safe and loved because they all trust their mom to be the kind, gentle and loving parent to all of them all at once.

If you are desiring emotional connection over “who is the boss” dog coaching, set up your Discovery Call with me.