09/19/2026
Sometimes, you have a moment, or two...where you see just how amazing the dog having a way to communicate their emotional state can make or break a moment of training.
The dog in this photo is Sweetie, a really cool Corgi.
Sweetie has a fun and really adorable demeanor, but can sometimes have a lot of feelings. Which can show as displacement behavior like sniffing, checking out, etc. She can get overwhelmed but LOVES the game. Those displacement behaviors have really gone away since we started giving her ways to communicate and actually listened to her.
One of her favorite ways to reset and reboot her brain is to go to her bed.
She enjoys running fast and tries her hardest!
She has been steadily increasing the time she can work and she has become a little agility beast! Even trialing and getting some Q's!
Just recently she came in for a lesson and seemed "off"...she kept telling us, that she COULD NOT, not that she was naughty and didn't want to. She was moving well, no issues with that.
Through a conversation with her owner, there had been some really stressful things that had happened and most likely Sweetie was struggling with the stress of this.
If you are not familiar with "spoon theory" look it up. It is a really great way to describe how people can just "RUN OUT" of the energy to do tasks. I think dogs are very similar.
Using her bed command and some other behaviors...and watching when she chose to opt into work and opt out of work, we were able to figure out which behaviors were draining her, and which behaviors she COULD do. SHE TOLD US THIS.
She communicated this in a matter of minutes and within that time, we were able go from a dog that was not able to do one obstacle, to a dog that felt safe and happy to get back to course work.
We used decompression in between working to help her let go of some of that stress and she was able to regain her focus, and love of the game that she did not come into the lesson with that day.
Seeing her use her "words" aka actions to help us understand what was happening in her brain, was just amazing. It is why I do this. It is my passion.
Dogs are not trying to be bad, just like us, they have stressful days and what we do to listen to them, and help them, can really make a difference.
Good girlie Sweetie! And to her owner, thank you for listening to what she has to say, not in words, but in actions :)
