Week 2

This week we are working on Doggie Zen and shaping. For me this means, breaking things down into little steps, trusting the process and looking for success. It is a practice. We are practicing five times a day for about 5-10 minutes.

In some ways it's like a meditation. We are now focusing on a leave it exercise where I put a treat in my hand and if he sniffs at it I close my hand and wait for him to "leave it". While he is sniffing or messing with my hand I just calmly wait for him to stop. When he stops, I click and treat. It really does work for us and makes me think about how this can apply to parenting.

For example, with homework when I set the boundaries I say for example, "I am not signing off on the homework unless it is complete and legible". I am not getting all worked up and excited and upset and instead I let whatever response they have come up and without my response making it worse, they magically give up the resistance and come back to work, finish it up nicely and hand it to me and I reward them with my signature. It feels like magic. The power of clear communication and calm intention is amazing.

The less extra activity you do and more the focused you are on what is important in that moment the easier it is for dog or child to understand what you want.

This is also applying to my life as well. I only have a small amount of energy during the day and I need to manage it and decide what I want to get done and not allow distractions to pull me away.

The journey has begun.