Day 4: Not sure... · The Magic in Dogs

Day 4: Not sure...

I struggled to understand the Day 4 prompts on observing without having a thought about what I'm observing. To be a good dog trainer we say we need to be observant, but what we actually mean is we need to be good (detail-oriented) observers with accurate interpretation skills. So for me, today, I made this exercise not about trying to not have a thought about what I was observing but instead to not make a value judgement about what I was observing - that whatever was happening was interesting, to be curious about, but not jump to a conclusion about Good Or Bad too quickly.

I had an opportunity this afternoon to put it into action. I was busy doing an assignment and Koko walked over and whined loudly while looking directly at me. I was able to respond without any emotional arousal, and offered her some helpful advice about what she could do to make herself feel better (go into the other room where it was a little cooler), and as soon as I'd said that she had a stretch right in front of me, I gave her a stroke, and she took herself off to where I'd suggested.

Pic of a Koko stretch just because any post is better with a dog pic attached. 🙂

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Day 4: Not sure...