Delightful Dog Mobile Obedience Training

10/31/2024

Your Dog Is Your Mirror: The Emotional Capacity of Our Dogs and Ourselves by Kevin Behan explores the deep emotional connection between humans and dogs, proposing that dogs act as mirrors for their owners' emotions, often reflecting feelings we may not even realize we have. Behan, a dog trainer with decades of experience, dives into the idea that dogs’ behavior and emotional responses are profoundly linked to their human companions’ internal states.

Here are 10 lessons from the book:

1. Dogs Reflect Human Emotions: Behan argues that dogs instinctively tune into their owners' emotions and often mirror these feelings through their behavior. When we experience stress, anxiety, or joy, our dogs sense it and may act accordingly, showing behavioral changes that reflect our own emotions.

2. The Concept of “Emotional Projection”: The book introduces the idea that dogs respond to our projected emotions rather than simply following training or cues. Behan suggests that dogs feel compelled to react to the emotions we may unconsciously project, impacting their behavior in unexpected ways.

3. Bond Beyond Training: Unlike traditional dog training, which emphasizes obedience, Behan emphasizes understanding the emotional dynamics between dog and owner. He believes that behavior issues often have roots in emotional disconnect rather than just a lack of discipline or training.

4. Recognizing Your Influence on Your Dog: According to Behan, self-awareness is crucial for dog owners. By recognizing and understanding our own emotional states, we can gain insight into why our dogs act a certain way and address behavioral problems at their root.

5. Dogs as Healers: The book highlights that dogs often have a calming, therapeutic effect on their owners. Behan suggests that this ability comes from their capacity to absorb and reflect emotions, often helping people deal with stress or unresolved feelings.

6. Understanding Behavior as Communication: Behan encourages viewing a dog’s actions not as “good” or “bad” behavior but as a form of emotional communication. Instead of merely correcting behavior, he advises interpreting what the behavior might reveal about the dog’s emotional state or its owner’s feelings.

7. Embracing Vulnerability and Connection: Dogs encourage their owners to access vulnerable emotions and foster authentic connections. Behan explains that by being open to emotional honesty, owners can deepen their bond with their dogs and see improvements in the relationship.

8. Shared Emotional Energy: The book describes the idea of “emotional energy” that dogs and humans share. This energy transfer allows dogs to pick up on subtle cues and respond in ways that can be surprisingly intuitive, even beyond what humans can consciously recognize.

9. Re-evaluating Traditional Discipline: Rather than relying on discipline alone, Behan suggests that dog owners take a more compassionate approach, addressing underlying emotions that may influence behavior, leading to a more harmonious relationship with their dogs.

10. Dogs as Emotional Guides: Behan proposes that dogs guide us through our own emotional journey, teaching us empathy, patience, and self-reflection. By understanding their responses, owners can learn more about their own needs, fears, and emotional landscape.

Your Dog Is Your Mirror by Kevin Behan offers a unique perspective on the emotional dynamics between humans and dogs, challenging readers to consider how their own feelings and behaviors influence their pets. The book is a guide to building a deeper, more empathetic relationship with our dogs through self-awareness, compassion, and emotional understanding.

GET BOOK: https://amzn.to/3YttxFM

You can also get the AUDIO BOOK for FREE using the same link. Use the link to register for the AUDIO BOOK on Audible and start enjoying it.

10/31/2024

The good thing about training a dog for work is that he doesn’t need to be perfect.
Shepherds used to train their dogs for work, and the trials were secondary; dogs would be polished up so they could compete with excellence, but work was the priority.
Today, most train for trials first, and the work is an afterthought.
When a dog is doing practical work, he can make mistakes and learn through experience with guidance from the handler, until he understands the task. This allows the dog to develop without a lot of pressure before he’s mentally able to handle it.
With most people now training for trialing, some make the mistake of striving for perfection, rather than excellence.

“Perfection” doesn't allow room for dogs to make mistakes and work things out on their own.
Those who strive for excellence understand that mistakes are inevitable and part of the path to learning and improvement, while perfectionists tend to see mistakes as failures.
Excellence we can reach for with effort, practice, and persistence. But pursuing perfection sets an impossibly high standard, not only for us but also for our dogs.

Some ideas perfectionists pursue is for their dogs to: work at the perfect distance off sheep, drill them for the perfect walk, make sure every flank is perfectly square, to name a few.
The problem with this, is assuming it is the same for all dogs- instead of making adjustments for a dogs individual type and amount of ‘eye’, directness, presence, excitability, temperament, etc.
Often these handlers have young dogs that “never really got keen enough to train” (when it was the initial over training that caused it) or an open dog that flanks rather than walks up, lacks enthusiasm for shedding, stopping running sheep, enjoying turning back, or other.

If you require perfection you can diminish your dogs spirit and their ultimate potential.
Perfectionists may sometimes gain 2-6 months at the start of their young dogs career, but often lose years at the end of it.

Dogs, and trainers alike, learn from being allowed to make mistakes, and, in turn, learning from those mistakes will pave the way for excellence.

macraeway.com

Patricia Alasdair MacRae

09/25/2024

Science, Ethics, and Dog Training with Ivan Balabanov00:00 Introduction: Ivan's biggest accomplishment throughout his career05:40 Understanding Dogs: Insight...

09/17/2024

FOUND: lab around a year old running on sparkman dr. Past dog splash and before Pulaski. Un altered male. He’s currently in my back yard with water, he’s definitely an escape artist

09/04/2024

Get key takeaways and a list of references using the link below:https://dr-melanieuhde.lpages.co/neurobiology-of-resilience-summary/00:00 Introduction: Debun...

09/01/2024

08/30/2024

*Nasa update*

Nasa is now just over 16 weeks old and excelling at everything we have thrown her way. She’s confident and excited to go out and work daily! Stayed tuned for her application here in the next few months we hope to find a handler for her before a year old to start task training and possible over nights to make the transition easier!

Also if anyone would like to volunteer with delightful dog and work Nasa in a store for 20 minutes or be a distraction for her we would love that!

If you’d like to sponsor Nasas training and her future handler please reach out to delightful dog! Service dogs are expensive and we are hoping to take a little bit of the burden off her future handler as they learn to navigate the world together and gain some independence!

08/27/2024

08/22/2024

08/22/2024

The Phenomenon of Play with Dr. Sergio Pellis00:00 Introduction and Background01:52 The Research on Play Behavior06:55 Isolation and Motivation in Play11:16 ...

08/20/2024

When your clients wood working is much better than yours ♥️♥️♥️

08/04/2024

Nasa update 🎉🎉
Delightful dogs service dog in training Nasa is now 13 weeks old and full of fire! She’s incredibly smart and going to help someone’s independence so much!
She currently is still in the socialization window but she’s going to go far! Nothing has fazed this dog get and we are excited to see her growth in real time. She’s currently working on sit, down, place, door threshold, heeling and settling and she’s excelling at all of the above. Along with this she’s learning daily how to be neutral around people and other dogs which is hard work for a lab puppy!

If you or someone you know could benefit from a tasked trained service dog please reach out we would love to chat and maybe even pair you with Nasa as she gets older!

If you would like to sponsor Nasas and her future handler please let us know! Service dogs are very expensive and we would truly love to help raise someone of the money for nasas training so her future handler can focus more on gaining independence back and learn how to navigate the world with nasa by their side when she graduates from our program!

08/02/2024

Nasa got a bath with some sweet people yesterday. Ashley is a groomer by trade but it important that Nasa learns to be handled and okay with different people other than just us!

08/01/2024

If it fits I sits

07/20/2024

*Nasa update*
As some of you know delightfully dogs first program service dog is home and she’s now 10 weeks old and 21 pounds. So far nasa is goofy and loves to steal shoes and also hang with the big dogs. Her nicknames is currently tornado and gremlin. Nasa will experience alot before the 16 week old period to prepare her to be a service dog for a future handler so far she’s been to cabelas, homegoods, lowes, a school, and a lot more!

If you want to sponsor/donate to Nasas trainer and their future handler please reach out! Service dogs are a lot of money but can give independence back to a disabled individual. We are excited to continue sharing her journey with delightful dog

07/19/2024

Mogwi has donut eyes for food 🤤