Groundhog Day, Everyday

You go through the motions every day.

As soon as your alarm goes off, your Autopilot turns on and you arrive at work wondering at how you got there.

You share how it feels like Groundhog Day day in and day out.

Same.

Thing.

Everyday.

You believe you have no time to take a break, spend time with friends or family you haven’t seen in a long time or really explore what you really want.

You’ve been doing the same type of work for years.

You’re left feeling unfulfilled and not sure what you’re capable of anymore because you’ve been at the whim of others demand at work, home and now you feel your dog is demanding more of your time and energy.

Neither of which you believe you have any more to give.

All you want is for your dog to be on autopilot with you.

What you start experiencing is your dog is now barking at you and you don’t know what to do.

Out on walks, your dog is lunging at everything that moves and all you’re trying to do is catch up with friends because you have no other time to do so.

When guests finally do come over, you’re become embarrassed how your dog is jumping and grabbing at your guests clothes. You had no idea this was going to happen.

The trickle of anger begins to seep in.

And you explode at others around you, including your dog.

Quickly, you become angry at yourself for allowing the top off the kettle.

Now, everything is out in the open and you can’t stuff it back in.

It’s staring at you in the face. You’re feeling exposed.

You now desire for something to change.

You want to feel good in what you do, how you do it and you want others in your life including your dog to experience good times with you.

You want to feel as free as your dog sticking her tongue out of the window as you’re cruising down the street.

You now know what you want to feel and how you envision your life to look like with your dog, but how to get there, leaves you feeling confused.

A dog trainer can help you with the concepts and teaching you the skills of how to teach your dog what you want to see more of when you’re both together.

A coach will bring you through not only your dog’s hills and valleys of learning when the excitement wanes and confusion and frustration rear its head, but a coach will be there when you experience your own ebb and flow in learning too.

You’re not only feeling into the sensations of what your body is experiencing, but you’re also caring for another who is also going through their own emotional experiences of learning.

Investing time and resources into support systems while you build your confidence, resiliency and encouragement to move forward makes the difference.

You never have to do it alone.

Are you desiring encouragement and support in how you grow into the person you and your dog need you to be?

Let’s chat!

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Your Growth Edge

Embodiment is the ability of the body and mind to work in concert with one another.

The body receives information a half a second faster and sends the information up to the brain to process.

The taking in of new information, assimilating the new ideas into established way of thinking and then moving the body into applying the concepts into new behavior patterns.

This will be clunky.

Why?

You have no concept of what this looks like or feel like because you’ve never done it before.

Learning a new skill is creating new neural pathways in your mind.

What you do have an understanding on is when things are hard, having old beliefs about yourself in learning something new can impact how quickly or if you learn the skill at all.

Beliefs like, “you’re not good enough”, “how dare you try something new”, “who are you for doing something different, “who do you think you are” may be swirling around your mind.

These beliefs can crop up and interfere with how you learn and grow.

They detract you from doing something different because those beliefs are meant to keep you small and keep you doing the same thing.

Learning something new requires your body to do things differently, but your mind doesn’t want to you to because it requires too much of your energy to do so.

Learning something new creates stress in your body.

When you experience stress, it’s uncomfortable and being uncomfortable doesn’t feel good.

This physiological response is meant to keep you safe. We are not hardwired to grow.

Learning something new requires you to practice, face the uncertainty, be comfortable with being uncomfortable when trying on something new and face those old beliefs about yourself.

But, on the other side of learning the new skill is how your body takes over.

Your body integrates the skill and the skill becomes apart of who you are.

The skill is a reflex which you no longer think about, mentally process or will your body to do.

The body takes over and you can be in the moment of doing because it is who you are rather than what you have to do.

Getting the steps wrong, trying again, evaluating what worked and what didn’t and taking the next step.

As a pet parent, this may be the first time you are introduced to strategies that are beyond the basic manners of sit, wait and down.

When your dog is showing signs of fear or is biting others, working through ways of helping your dog change his or her emotional response goes beyond what your dog does, but how you show up and what you do to put the practice into motion.

As you can see, changing emotional responses takes time not just for your dogs, but you too.

Your growth edge will be exposed and when the going gets tough, how do you respond?

How do You Want Your Dog to Feel?

I received a massage last week to help heal some injured calf and hamstring muscles after a half marathon I ran 2 months ago.

I’m definitely feeling better (don’t worry Ragnar Relay team 😂), but I wanted to take more target action on the area after pulling back from some longer runs.

After the appointment, I shared how I experienced the sensations I had during the treatment with my massage therapist.

The massage therapist shared with me to ice the area when I got home as a way to change the neural pathways as it relates to my pain.

She shared how pain is the body’s emotional response to something harmful happening to it. Our bodies then send the message up to our brains via our central nervous system. Our brains interpret the message as an unpleasant emotional experience. The brain then sends a message to our bodies informing our bodies not to do certain actions as a way to avoid experiencing the pain again.

This conversation got me thinking.

As an adult that has agency over my body, I can make an informed choice of how I implement a training and recovery plan for myself. I can articulate to other professionals about what’s wrong and how we can work together for my wellbeing. I make a choice not just how my mind interprets the information presented, but I also feel what’s right for my next course of action.

Well, what about dogs?

Studies show that dogs have common brain structure and function as humans and they experience physical and emotional pain in a similar way.

Dogs also experience pleasure which leads them into their seeking system which drives them to do things like sniff and play. Activities they enjoy doing!

When things go wrong and you want to help your dog get back on track, you start looking for solutions.

You schedule to have calls with pet professionals which affords you an opportunity to ask questions and gather information regarding training schools and programs.

To make an informed choice of how to proceed with hiring a pet professional, we often limit ourselves by believing it requires our minds to filter through the risks, benefits and even how training is going to go when weighing your options.

It’s not just what our minds logically decide on the choice, but how our bodies feel about the choice also matters and even comes first.

Dogs can’t talk with human verbal language, but that doesn’t mean we can consider their point of view when making choices of what they will experience.

When you’re sifting through your pro/con list of pet professionals, ask yourself, how do you want your dog to feel as part of your informed choice making in hiring a pet professional?

What do you want your dog to feel when going through a training program?
What is the value of your dog finding pleasure in the experience and wanting your dog to have joy in his or life too?

When you answer is “I want my dog to enjoy and love the experience”, then aligning with a pet professional who will create a learning environment with fun and enjoyment is a TOP priority.

When you lead with your heart in finding workable solutions, you are honoring your dog’s wellbeing. The choice is based on how you feel you’re dog will thrive.

The power is in your hands in setting up your dog for success and becoming aware of your dog’s emotional experience is your guide in making choices on behalf of your dog.