027 | Haley & Scout (and Sean), on finding out where you and your dog fit in the (dog)world

027 | Haley & Scout (and Sean), on finding out where you and your dog fit in the (dog)world

Grab your dog and plan a dog walk or two.  Better yet, sit down, grab pen and paper and take notes. This episode is long and chock-full of wisdom.

Here are just some of the things Haley of @paws.andreflect talk about:

  • Why we choose to train the behaviors we train
  • Choice points: recognizing what you’re feeling and choosing to do something about it in a healthy and productive way rather than letting your feelings ruin your day. (What Haley describes are actually techniques you will learn in coaching with me as well).
  • Choosing the metrics you use to measure success: the recovery time after a reaction rather than if your dog reacts
  • Knowing who to trust as a trainer with all the contradictory advice out there
  • When is good good enough?
  • The law of diminishing marginal returns
  • What giving your dog freedom means

But also:

  • Positive punishment and how to have respectful conversations with people who have different views and opinions
  • Taking the leap to become a full-time self-employed writer about all things dog
  • Imposter syndrome and the nagging question of “Am I  good enough?”
  • Embarking on van life and the thought process behind it

    Links:

    Find Haley, her husband Sean, their van Hermes and their blue heeler Scout here:

    The Paws and Reflect Blog: https://pawsandreflect.blog/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paws.andreflect/

    Listen to the Paws and Reflect Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/paws-and-reflect/id1645967746

    Listen to the Paws and Reflect Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Eu3BJt11SLdDeALOd6RVq?si=07654b34d5fd4832

    Want to learn to recognize your choice points?

    So you don’t have to have things ruin your entire day?

    Jump on a call with me to decide if coaching with me is right for you.

    010 | Ruff Around the Edges With Liz and Titan

    010 | Ruff Around the Edges With Liz and Titan

    Titan was Liz’s obedience champion prospect and Liz had visions of him and her Shetland Sheepdog Tucker getting along and being best friends.

    Alas, the universe had different plans for all of them.

    Liz is able to articulate something that is dear to my heart as well. Teaching “obedience drills” or tricks is very different from behavior modification.

     

    We also talk about her moving away from positive reinforcement training in an attempt to get that perfect dog that according to experts is hiding somewhere inside Titan out of him, and how she moved back to it after having gone down a “learn everything there is about dog aggression rabbit hole” and having read Marissa Martino’s  book “Human-Canine Behavior Connection; Building Better Relationships Through Dog Training”.

    I wholeheartedly support Marissa’s training philosophies. You can find the link to her website Paws and Reward here: https://pawsandreward.com/

    The link to the Paws and Reward podcast episode featuring Liz and Titan on the value of neutral is here: https://pawsandreward.com/episode35/

    Coming back to this podcast episode though, Liz also beautifully describes how the larger herding community helped her see how great Titan is.

    As she wrote to me later, herding people seem to understand inherently that you can’t breed for certain characteristics without getting some other stuff to come along for the ride and that’s just the way it is and the dog is still awesome.

    I could not have said it better myself.

     

    We also discuss the beauty of simple management strategies like baby gates.

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