profile

Positive Dog

What about YOUR resiliency?

Published about 1 year ago • 2 min read

Resiliency is a bit of a buzz word in dog training these days. In case you missed all the hype, resiliency is the ability to successfully adapt to stressors, maintaining psychological well-being in the face of adversity. basically, a resilient dog can face and overcome challenges more easily than a dog who is not resilient. It's not as simple as that, but that's the general idea. The more resilient your dog is, the better =)

We have all sorts of tests and games (and even a rainbow!) to measure and increase your dog's resiliency. But what about you? What about the human side? Don't you need resiliency too?

Building your resiliency

What can you do outside of dog training to build your resiliency? What is kind of scary like a child's haunted house, but something you could definitely do? Incorporate a few things into your schedule and the hard dog training pieces will become easier. You will become better at facing challenging scenarios with your dog.

Sure it's easy, FOR YOU.

Walking a reactive dog down the street isn't scary for me. I do this day in and day out, and I have good resiliency in this aspect of my life. But I'm a professional dog trainer with thousands and thousands of hours of experience and education behind me.

The average pet owner is not a professional dog trainer - it is normal for you to be anxious about walking your reactive dog.

You know what is scary for me? Answering the phone, or even worse, calling someone. Those are pretty important skills for a business owner ;)

This week I went on a solo backpacking trip into wolf territory. That was also scary. I was 100% afraid. But I had a plan. I told myself to breathe and that it is normal to be afraid. Then it got better. I also had a plan for at night when I knew I would wake up and worry about the rustling noises outside of the tent. I played my podcast! A wolf would definitely be afraid of some business coach talking to themselves in the middle of the night right?

I did it. I survived. And, I had a LOT of fun!

Make your plan

Be sure your training plan is broken down into small pieces that aren't overwhelming for you, not just for your dog.

Practice a few non-dog-training tasks regularly to boost your problem solving skills and confidence - i.e. resiliency. You can do a lot away from dogs that will help your training progress =)

If you need help, you know where to find me!

​

Considering joining the next Deep Dive?

This is my super popular mentorship program in which I spend 8 weeks with a small group of people struggling with similar issues. This Deep Dive focuses on dogs who fight at home. Because this is a custom experience and I get to know each of you and your dogs intimately, space is limited to only 6 people.

​

2738 Holden Corso Rd, Nanaimo, BC v9x 1n5
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​

Positive Dog

Christina Young, BSc, CDBC, PCBC-A

Subscribe if you'd like to receive my somewhat regular emails including training tips and concepts as well as info about my upcoming freebies and programs!

Read more from Positive Dog

The Truth About Resource Guarding Dogs who guard things they have—or things they want to have—are displaying what we call resource guarding. For most dogs, resource guarding is either part of who they are — often influenced by genetics — or it simply isn’t something they do. In dogs who do guard, we typically can reduce but not erase the underlying anxiety or instinct to protect resources, unless it's addressed very early in life. What we can do is teach these dogs the skills they need to...

about 4 hours ago • 1 min read

Want to prevent reactivity before it starts? Here’s one of the most overlooked skills—learning to watch without staring. Here’s how to tell the difference: 🔹 Watching = relaxed, checking in, less than 3 seconds of direct eye contact, able to disengage 🔹 Staring = stiff, tense, frozen in position, locked-in eye contact, unable to look around, sniff, or connect with you So, why does this become a problem? Because we often miss the early warning signs. 🚩 We confuse "socialization" with letting...

7 days ago • 1 min read

What's the Real Trigger? Have you ever been told that your anxiety is the reason your dog is reactive? Let me be clear: that’s not true. Reactivity stems from a combination of learning history and genetics—not your emotions. That said, our dogs do pick up on patterns and cues in ways we often don’t notice. After losing both Maxi and Enzo last winter, I noticed something surprising. I had always assumed I fed the dogs breakfast simply because it was morning. But in reality, it was Maxi and...

14 days ago • 1 min read