28d • 🧘 Mindful Handler Corner
Another Year Older, Still Learning From Dogs
Since today is my birthday, I wanted to do something a little different and reflect on some of the things dogs—and spending so much of my life training them—have taught me.
The funny thing about working with dogs is that the longer you do it, the more you realize how much there still is to learn.
🌱 Patience
Dogs have taught me that progress doesn’t happen on my timeline.
Sometimes you need another repetition.
Sometimes you need to make the exercise easier.
Sometimes you need to stop training altogether and try again another day.
Trying to rush learning usually tells me more about my expectations than it does about the dog.
🗣️ Communication
I’ve also learned that communication isn’t just about getting better at telling a dog what I want.
It’s about getting better at listening to what they’re telling me.
Body language. Hesitation. Excitement. Avoidance. Engagement. Disengagement. The behaviors that happen before the behavior everyone notices.
Dogs are communicating constantly.
I’ve had to learn how to pay attention.
🧠 Humility
This might be one of the biggest lessons.
I’ve been training dogs for a long time, and there are things I believe and do differently today than I did years ago.
I hope I can say the same thing years from now.
Because experience shouldn’t mean deciding you already know everything.
When better evidence changes my understanding, I want to be willing to change my mind.
That’s not weakness or inconsistency.
That’s learning.
And I think our dogs deserve trainers and guardians who are willing to keep learning.
💚 Progress Isn’t Always Obvious
Dogs have also changed the way I think about progress.
Sometimes progress is a beautifully performed behavior.
But sometimes it’s…
A reaction that lasts 10 seconds instead of a minute.
A dog choosing to check in.
Recovering a little faster.
Hesitating and then deciding to try.
Feeling safe enough to say, “I need some space.”
Or something that was incredibly difficult six months ago becoming so ordinary that you almost forget it was ever a struggle.
Some of the most meaningful progress is easy to miss while it’s happening.
🎂 So That’s My Birthday Reflection
Another year of life means another year of learning, changing my mind, making mistakes, celebrating wins, and trying to understand dogs a little better than I did the year before.
And after all these years, I think one of the biggest lessons dogs continue to teach me is:
Pay attention to the individual in front of you.
Not the dog you expected them to be.
Not the dog a book says they should be.
Not the dog they were six months ago.
The dog who’s standing in front of you today.
🐾 Now I want to hear yours:
What’s the biggest lesson your dog has taught you?
It doesn’t even have to be about dog training. Maybe they’ve taught you patience, boundaries, resilience, slowing down, advocating for someone you love—or something completely different.
Consider sharing your dog’s name with your answer, too. I’d love to spend part of my birthday reading about the dogs who have changed all of us. 💚🎂
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Another Year Older, Still Learning From Dogs
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