{"id":740,"date":"2021-01-24T14:41:18","date_gmt":"2021-01-24T22:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/?p=740"},"modified":"2021-01-24T14:41:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T22:41:18","slug":"the-cost-of-over-engaging-with-my-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/24\/the-cost-of-over-engaging-with-my-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"The cost of over engaging with my dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m guilty. Both of my dogs have been over engaged.  Patrick especiallyand then Bernie followed. They are so focused on my interaction with them on walks and hikes that they are losing the joy of exploration. Patrick is deaf. Deaf  dogs are called Velcro dogs because they over attach right away.<br \/>\nPatrick showed me early on that he had a love for big rubber balls and that is how we bonded the first few months Well now eight years later&#8230;.<br \/>\nPatrick is fixated on the possibility that I might tug and throw his green rubber ball &#8211; he often has blinders on to the beautiful world around him. (unless it\u2019s other people he adores, then he wants to bring the rubber ball to them!)<br \/>\nBernie is so emotionally attached to me that all of her joy comes from play with me. I am her everything so our time together on walks is often about checking in every few seconds, tugging on some thing ,and instigating play.<\/p>\n<p>Now don\u2019t get me wrong this has benefits \u2013 my dogs are natural followers. I rarely had an off leash reliability problem. They are quite compliant when it comes to commands and they truly truly see me asleader so when I say NO &#8211; they listen and stop what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n<p>So this strongly bonded relationship is rich with love and devotion. We are a unit of 3. We go everywhere together. We do almost everything together and there is safety and connection in all that we do. <\/p>\n<p>Still, <a href=\"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/24\/the-cost-of-over-engaging-with-my-dogs\/image-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-742\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/image-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-742\" srcset=\"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/image-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/image-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/image-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/image-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/image-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/image-1-900x675.jpg 900w, https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/image-1-1280x960.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI should have ignored them a bit more on walks and hikes. I should not have catered to their every need for acknowledgment and play. This is the one area of weakness for me. I honestly think I project stuff onto them. When they look at me and ask for play \u2013 it\u2019s like a little girl in me says- \u201cacknowledge me , tell me I am special\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s never too late to change. Yes, My  Habits are ingrained. Yet on my next hike , I\u2019m not going tobring out the big green rubber ball. I\u2019m not going to bring out a tug toy. I\u2019m not going bring treats.<br \/>\nInstead I\u2019m going to remain quiet and present to nature. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m guilty. Both of my dogs have been over engaged. Patrick especiallyand then Bernie followed. They are so focused on my interaction with them on walks and hikes that they are losing the joy of exploration. Patrick is deaf. Deaf dogs are called Velcro dogs because they over attach right away. Patrick showed me early &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/24\/the-cost-of-over-engaging-with-my-dogs\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The cost of over engaging with my dogs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":746,"href":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions\/746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causeandeffectdogtraining.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}