Are you clinging on to your dogs past?
Have you adopted dog, which perhaps did not have the best conditions in the beginning of its life? Are you worried about the previous events that happened to the dog? Are you being overprotective of your dog? Too many worries can slow down your dog's development.
There is no future in living in the past.
If you dwell too much on your dog's past, you can hinder its development by shielding it from reality. If you are constantly thinking about what your dog or puppy has been through, it can limit the possibility of learning and act as a huge burden on the dog. In the worst case, you may end up having to part with the dog, as the spiral grows larger and larger as the dog reaches its developmental phases. By looking at it as a process and training through the challenges that the dog has in its backpack, you and the dog will have an alternative to use when things get tough.
The dog's backpack is not only filled with possible traumas but also with what is genetically and instinctively present in the dog. And it is precisely this that you should train - in this way, you can give the dog the best possible life. Consider what you can do to help your dog navigate through the life you want to live. Here are some examples of exercises that benefit both you and your dog:
- Train yourself and your patience.
- Train the dog to feel safe with you by setting demands and being structured in your training and coexistence with the dog.
- Train from the beginning of the exercises, with the intention of speaking the same language, and feel where your dog lacks knowledge.
- Find a group of people with dogs who train using the same method as you. Onlinehund has created city groups throughout the country, where you can meet and network with dog owners from the same area as you who train according to the REASOM method. See the city groups here.
- Do not lose hope and be continuous. You do not become good at Chinese by skipping classes.
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Do you overprotect your dog?
Often, if you're concerned about your dog's past, you naturally tend to overprotect your dog. Overprotection can also occur independently of the relationship you have with your dog, but what is most important is the significance of overprotecting your puppy or dog.
If you solve ALL of your dog's problems, it will never learn to navigate in reality, which leads to an unhealthy dependence on you as a dog owner. At Onlinehund, we believe that such a dependence is bonding incorrectly with your dog and the root of many behavioral challenges. Overprotecting a dog is more than meeting its needs and basic care and training. It is the behavior of the dog owner, where they guard the dog and all possible situations it finds itself in. Understood in such a way that you do not set limits or make demands on the dog in a structured manner.
With the intention of protecting their dog, dog owners become overprotective. The dog thus becomes suddenly dependent on its owner, as it has no experience in navigating on its own terms, as its curiosity has been stopped. It is often observed that dogs like these develop separation anxiety, nervousness for other dogs or people - as the dog lacks the tools to navigate in different situations. In the worst case, these behavioral challenges can develop into aggression, as tolerance becomes very low due to fear.
We need to give the puppy or dog trust and equip them to live in our world. Puppy training from 8 weeks of age is very receptive to learning, especially between 4 and 16 weeks. If the dog is older, it is never too late to change its behavior. However, it will take longer to change your attachment pattern, but over time the dog will accept your new way of seeing life. It is much harder for you as a human, as you are filled with human emotions and have a different mindset than your dog. Avoiding overprotecting your dog is the best gift you can give. It is not your duty to control the dog, but to teach the dog to control itself.