Roger Abrantes: 16 Things You Should Stop Doing In Order To Be Happy With Your Dog

BradA1878

I think this is a great blog post...

16 Things You Should Stop Doing In Order To Be Happy With Your Dog by Roger Abrantes
Link: http://rogerabrantes.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/16-things-you-should-stop-doing-in-order-to-be-happy-with-your-dog

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WrylyBrindle

I agree! Thank you for that link!

It is easy to get so wrapped up in Dog-People culture and training politics, etc. This is why I quit all my dog magazines/journals a few years ago, and put most of my dog books away, except for a very short shelf. It made me crazy and guilty and emotional. Its really just me and this dog, here, right now.

Talking with my sister, telling her all the stuff I had to stop doing with Sage and how it made me sad to 'give up'- she said "You know- he would probably do really well with someone you and I would consider a 'bad' dog owner- someone who didnt take him anywhere or expect anything, who just sat around reading and watching football with him, and took him out to pee 3 x a day." and I thought- I easily can be that for him and still hike with Reilly (and later Juno). Once I quit even *trying* to achieve heroic levels of reform with my reactive dog, we all felt better. Now I just am grateful for a 'pretty good' response when I can get it, and expecting a 'typical' response. Yeah. He barks. He jumps on guests and tries to french-kiss them. Sage just does that. I know he looks scary. But he's my dog, and my daughter and her middle-school girl friends joke that he doesn't have 'attributes' he has 'attri-cutes' ;P so there.

I once had a contractor at our old house who had two chow-lab mixes, one was very dog-reactive, but he wasnt invested in dog-owner/trainer-culture and he didn't care about all that. His dogs are what they are and he knows it and can even laugh about it: "My black dog- he hates other dogs- Ha Ha! He likes the one he's with but that's IT." He doesnt care that they dont go to dog park, or the things people think of his dog or him. I thought "Why cant I laugh about it?" I wished I could. I can't quite yet, but I'm getting better.

ttddinh

great read, thanks for the link!

Losech

That was good. Thanks Brad!

obuk

Nice!

lindsayt

Interesting read. I do think it is important however, not to assume a defeatist attitude about living with/training dogs in regards to certain issues. I guess it just depends on the reasons each of us decide to have dogs in our lives.

shibamistress

I thought it was interesting too, and Chrys, you've helped a ton understand how to deal with the dogs I have. It's ok that Bel doesn't want to go anywhere, and there's not much to do with that but live with it.

I get Lindsay's point, too, about not giving up too easily, but there is also a point where we need to accept the dogs we have. I think that points come at different places depending on the dog and owner.

matias

Very nice read, thanks for sharing. It got me thinking how the simpliest of things are often so hard to implement.