[nagdu] What do you do when you're angry with your dog?

[The Pawpower Pack]

I find that since I've become a clicker trainer, much of my personal  
anger, feelings of frustration and resentment toward my dog and some  
of her behaviors has lessoned dramatically.

I now know that if my dog engages in A behavior when B happens, then C  
will be the result.
As an example, I have left a sandwich on a plate and have not worked  
enough with my dog on "leave it" and then I leave the room without  
cueing my dog to either follow me or to engage in a fluent  
incompatible behavior, that the result may be that she eats my  
sandwich.  The fault lays with me alone.  My dog isn't testing me, or  
flouting my authority, or trying to exert her dominance.  She is being  
a dog and I have set up a situation where her dog instincts are most  
likely going to kick in.

I find that clicker training helps me to be much more logical and  
methodical about behavior, it's causes and results and my part in it.

This is not to say that I never get angry or frustrated, because I  
do.  However when it happens I seem to be a bit more clear headed  
about it and I have stopped taking dog behavior so personally.

I do find that a "time out" in the crate is good for me sometimes, or  
some quick clicker work to refocus us if the crate isn't an option.

Really though, stuff happens, dogs do things we wish they wouldn't but  
at the end of the day, the amazing work they do and the constancy they  
show, outweighs any behaviors I'd may not like.  Things are just  
things and they can be replaced-- living through Katrina and the  
destruction of everything I've held dear has taught me that we can  
make do without our stuff, but that it's almost impossible for me to  
make do without my dog.
I try to use my brain, set my dog up for success, spend lots of time  
on leave it training, and just let everything else go.


Rox and the Kitchen Bitches
Bristol (retired), Mill'E SD. and Laveau Guide Dog, CGC.
"It's wildly irritating to have invented something as revolutionary as  
sarcasm, only to have it abused by amateurs." -- Christopher Moore
pawpower4me at gmail.com

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