Strathcona Dogs

Tuesday morning hikers ☀️

Monday arvo hikers ft. Dane, Cleo, Millie, Odi, Charlie and Sadie on her perch.

This weekend saw 5 teams pass their Canine Good Neighbour (CGN) test. Congratulations to Nicole with Mochi, Alesha with Rip, Ursula with Bailey, Susan with Gryffyn and my friend out East, Rosalind with Sam! 🏆

Sports focus but relevant for all new puppy owners.

Getting a puppy is so exciting!! Until it isn’t. Especially when we plan on it being a performance or working dog. We start worrying. Will I do a good job raising this puppy? Training it? Will I mess it up? Ruin it? I sure don’t want to make the same mistakes I made with my last puppy! Will it get along with my other dogs? Will it be as good as I hope it will be? What if it’s not? And suddenly we are no longer excited. We are nervous, anxious, afraid, worried, unsure…

And when the puppy arrives, we over analyze. Oh my, he’s not learning fast enough. Yikes, something just startled him. Uh oh his arousal went up really quickly. He’s not as food or toy motivated as I had hoped…and so on. We think about our past dogs. All the traits we’d rather not see in this puppy. All the behaviors and problems we want to avoid. And down a rabbit hole we go.

Hold on!! Slow down!! Take a breath!! It’s a puppy! It’s only going to be a puppy for a blink of an eye. Enjoy it!! Accept that you will make mistakes. That’s part of training. The puppy will have strengths. And the puppy will have weaknesses. Some parts of training will go smoothly. Others will be a challenge. That’s dog training. This puppy will not be like your other dogs. Because it’s unique. Don’t label it. Approach it with an open mind. Get to know this being. Who are you?

That’s what all of my puppy training focuses on. Getting to know the puppy. And building a relationship. Sure, I teach behaviors. But not because I’m in a rush to compete. Because training is how I interact with my dogs. It’s how I get to know them, understand them. How we communicate. How we create a bond and a relationship. What motivates you? What’s your learning style? What worries you? What excites you? What bores you? What motivator do you like? How do you process information? What do you do when you make a mistake? How do you feel about people? Noises? Other dogs? Why did you do that? What does it mean?

I want to have an open mind. I don’t want to put past training mistakes on you. I don’t want to compare you. I don’t want to put expectations on you. I don’t want to put too much weight on every little thing you do. I just want to get to know you. I want to listen to what you have to say. I want to become best friends.

And that’s true not just for puppies. But for all our dogs regardless of their age. Relationships are about being a good listener. A good communicator. Clearing our human mind of mental trash and just being in the moment with the dog in front of us. Doing our best to understand them. And always trying to improve our ability to communicate with them.

So relax. Breathe. Get out of your head. Be excited!! I’m excited when it’s time to train my adult dogs. I’m excited that I’m getting a puppy soon. Sure, my brain likes to go off on worrisome trips…but I’m aware. I stop myself. Pattern interrupt. Reset. It’s a puppy. It’s a dog. I love them. I enjoy them. It’s that simple. The rest will work itself out.

Check out our latest episode available on all podcast platforms.

https://rss.com/podcasts/canine-connection-podcast/3106767/