09/30/2025
Today I got greedy. Sochi, Blue, and I had a great day. We took a nice long walk this morning. We had a great hike this afternoon with my dad. After teaching some lessons I went to my parents yard to spend some time outside with the dogs.
Sochi struggles with reactivity, mainly towards dogs but sometimes people too. But we've made great strides. But we still have work to do and we are trying to find a good strategy that works for both of us. So whenever we are in the yard it takes effort from her and myself.
I was sitting on a bench with her on leash and we were working through her bouts of reactivity. And she was doing pretty well. I felt like we had a good strategy for today and she was being very sweet and cuddly. I took this picture after she had been hanging out like that for 15 mins. I was happy because I was actually able to enjoy our time outside together.
But as time went on she started getting more reactive. And the strategy I had been using was not working like it had. And I got frustrated, I felt like she wasn't trying any more. And because I was getting frustrated with her she was getting frustrated with me. I let that go on way longer than I should have before I decided to call it quits and take them home.
Later that night I was talking to my mentor about what happened. After I told him the story he asked me "what did you learn?" I said I felt like the strategy I had thought was going to work for us wasn't going to work after all. He said that wasn't true, with the way I told the story I had felt like it was working at the time, and calm me was probably more right than frustrated me.
He told me that I have to be more aware of her time limits. She was doing well and then, without any huge changes, started getting worse. That should be a sign that I should put her up instead of pushing for more. Her self control and restraint had been delpleted, she had nothing more to give.
But I had gotten greedy. I was enjoying the time out side with my sweet, snuggly puppy that I have been wanting to have. And I was blinded to the effort it was taking from her to be that way. Instead of saying "that was a great 20 mins, let's call it before it's too mu
