This week has been crazy, as you can probably tell by my lack of posts. All sorts of good things have been happening in my life, but it’s very busy. I’ve been watching some movies and trying to relax.
But one thing I did this week was seek help with Kody. Kody is really well trained. I’m not exaggerating when I say he never has accidents in the house. He sits and everything else on command and is super easy to live with. I’m very proud of the work I’ve done with Kody. Except in one area.
Kody has issues with other dogs and sometimes strangers. They’re confusing issues because sometimes he doesn’t have them. I’ve started to see that it’s not what I’m doing, but maybe just who Kody is. When you’re so successful in some areas and not in others, it’s strange. Over time Kody’s issues are getting better, but not to the point of going away. I don’t know exactly how to handle Kody’s other issues or how to make or measure progress.
I’m a frequent commenter on Dog Star Daily, and I’ve emailed some of the people from time to time. I decided to take a chance and email someone who I thought could recommend a trainer in my area. I felt really obnoxious about it because, honestly, this person has better things to do than email me. But I thought that since she knows who I am, that maybe she would be able to help me. And she emailed me back!
I talked to one of the trainers she recommended today. We had a good talk and are going to meet next week. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s funny, because even though I know it’s a crazy thought, my fear is always, “What if the trainer asks me to love my dog less, or wants to take away some of our favorite things, like cuddling on the couch?” I’m sure that won’t happen, but I think it’s a common concern. People worry that having a trained dog means somehow that dog’s life (or the human’s life) has to be less fun. I know that’s not the case, but even for me, it’s a bit of a leap of faith.
My goals are basically to have more of a stress free life with Kody. I would eventually like to go to barbecues with him and maybe even dachshund meet ups or other events with dogs and people. Whenever I see people at the events I write about with their dogs I’m so envious. I wish we could go to dachshund races, or dachshund events. But right now, we can’t. Maybe those things aren’t in the cards for Kody, but I’m going to learn as much as I can to get us as close as possible.
It’s also a bit hard to talk about this here, because I talk so much about our other training goals that we’re successful at. But this has me stumped. Part of making my decision to seek training was that I wouldn’t be able to talk about my progress with Kody on this blog if we just stopped making progress. I was ready to take the next step.
So I hope that I will have many wonderful stories and breakthroughs to share with you.