Week 7 and 8

This week Blitz and I went to Durango for the boy's lacrosse games and we stayed in a hotel.  Blitz was great in the hotel.  No barking when people walked by the room or even when someone slipped something under the door.  At home, we mastered turning the light switch on and off when I say light.  It's really wonderful to be able to not have to get up to turn the light on or off.


We are learning a new technique for both family and dog.  Eat dessert first.  Well, not really.  We are learning that doing the easy tasks first gives us confidence and momentum to tackle harder things.  Just like recharging Blitz by asking for a sit at the start of a training session gives him an automatic success and gets him in the mind set of minding, looking at 14 pages of math and finding and doing all of the easy ones quickly and effortlessly recharged their math brain and sets them up for successfully completing the harder problems.  


Our entire family has had to modify the way we interact with each other and backing up to success is working for us.  We are really good at enjoying sports and the out of doors and we are making time to do this together more often.  These times are building our confidence and comfort with each other so we can continue to work on the bigger challenges.


Our really big change is letting go of our big reactions when things are not going well is the same as ignoring the bad behavior.  We are practicing saying "ouch" when something hurts our feelings or is mean and then dropping it completely.  Sometimes, we bring it up again at a more neutral time when we are not poised for a fight.  It is amazing how dropping feelings of resentment, anger, frustration and disappointment is easier when you know that you have a more effective tool for addressing the behavior that bugs you and you don't need to carry all this negativity around.  The person who offended is then also free to feel sorry for what they did instead of defensive and sometimes even offers and apology before you do anything.  Somehow this works for us.  I wish I had done this work when I was a kid.  I think stopping the prednisone which was making me feel cranky and out of control has really helped too.  


So, I guess you should eat dessert first or at least what feels best to your body at the time.  


Practice makes perfect over time.


Claire