How full is your bank account? No I'm not talking about your personal bank account but where are you at with your dog?
Owning a puppy, rescue dog, reactive dog, to honest any dog there will be times where your bank account is boosted for example, when they recall away from dogs, when they have learnt something new, when they are listening to you well. We all love these things and this adds to our relationship bank account.
But there are times when your puppy is nipping you, where the dog ignores your instruction, where the dog is whining or you are fed up of the dog barking and you shout at them (we are only human!). This can negatively impact our relationship bank account. So when we are on the negative side what can we do?
There are many things we can do to boost our relationship back up. Sometimes this can be very hard to get into the mood to do this especially if you feel defeated or not making any progress.
Have a cuppa and time out from your dog.
Make the environment very easy for both you and your dog and do something nice together whether that is filling a snuffle mat up and sitting with your dog, play a game e.g. mouse game would be good here (put a bit of food on the ground and cage it with your hand, when the dog backs off you can let them have it) or you could play find it in the house.
Cuddle your dog if they like it, spend some time just chilling and enjoying each others company.
Look at what happened and take it as information, if your dog has barked at a runner. Your dog can't cope with runners right now so you will need to work with movement at a distance and grow your D.M.T. marker to help them in the future with novelty and movement.
Games based training is so good to boost our relationship bank account, time out and a favourite game with your dog will boost it back up. I also love to do a dog sport with my lot whether that is Mantrailing, Scent work, Agility or Scent Hurdling!
Having a dog sport in your life gives you a hobby to do with your dog and watching them progress in that is so rewarding!
