Does the big picture of where you want to be with your dog feel overwhelming to even think about?

"I know where I'd love to be, but that's so far away with so many hoops to jump through to get there."

That's what one of my Dream Dog students said at the start of our planning session yesterday. She has two dogs—one is 90 lbs and reactive to both people and dogs.

I asked her to describe to me what she envisioned when she said "I know where I'd love to be".

• The big goal was to be able to take her dogs on adventures - camping in their travel trailer, pet-friendly hotels, etc. They have an annual family campout on 3 acres that they usually find pet sitters for because they can’t take the dog. Have you tried finding reliable pet sitters for large reactive dogs during the summer??? Not easy.

What else?

• She would like to be able to have her dog around her nieces - 5 and 9 years old. Their dog is great with kids she knows well, but rushes at these kids or any unknown kids.

What else?

• It’s very hard to get their dog to take pills. She’s tried all of the usual games that fool most dogs, but this pup is too smart. She runs and hides at the first sign of anything to do with pills.
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That's a lot. It's normal for this all to feel overwhelming.

But here's what happened when we broke it down.

We mapped out long-term, medium-term, and short-term goals—and suddenly some of them were right around the corner.

Take camping. The big dream is the family campout with people stopping by their site all day. That's the long-term goal. But the medium-term goal? A quiet camping trip in a less busy part of the campground, with (potentially covered) x-pens creating a safe zone around the trailer.

Short-term goals to get there:

• Teach the dogs x-pen boundaries (they already understand baby gates)
• Watch Facebook Marketplace for deals on x-pens to buy
• Practice the same calm-on-the-deck protocol we've been practicing—just inside the x-pen setup

We broke it down like this for each one of her goals.

• We have a plan on how to safely introduce her dog to the kids.
• We have a new plan to teach the pup how to take pills, and this one isn't trying to trick her.

Her words after our session:

"I really enjoyed how we broke it down—more achievable than I first thought! It's super exciting to look forward to the possibilities."

If you're stuck staring at a goal that feels impossible, let's break it down together.

Dream Dog is OPEN FOR ENROLLMENT!