18/06/2025
I SAY THIS OVER AND OVER IN MY REACTIVE CLASSES !!
An on leash tantrum isn’t the REAL issue.
It’s the compounded effects of their daily living that ignite the fuse, & carry the most weight.
Unchecked moments of unhealthy irrationality, paranoia, restlessness, pushiness, & disrespect are green lights for much larger scale issues. Alerting to the mailman, barking out the front window, barreling through Thresholds, rocketing out of the crate, always having to be reminded, constantly having to repeat commands, demanding attention, incessant whining, hyper-arousal, nonstop fidgeting or movement, or gobbling food before your “okay” all weigh heavily on a dog’s perception of reality.
When we let the small stuff go unchecked, we invite the rude, dismissive, unhealthy behavior to symptomatically fester into a much larger scale issue that cannot be ignored. Neglecting to address the smaller offenses, will inevitably guarantee a deepening and intensification of bad behavior.
The key to getting ahead of, or even preventing another embarrassing or scary episode, lies in our daily living arrangement. Try to examine all of the smaller moments that can go easily ignored, but shouldn’t. Get a handle on the small stuff, & the big stuff may never happen again!
