Hi there,
Let me tell you about my dog Batman’s strange new habit…
Last week, Batman started doing this weird thing where he would repeatedly shove his face into his bed, pushing it around the floor. At first, I shrugged it off thinking, “Dogs are just weird sometimes.”
I was busy with work, so I cut our training sessions down from our usual daily routine to just three times that week. No big deal, right?
Well, Batman didn’t agree. His face-pushing habit got more intense. He started pulling on his leash during walks (something he hadn’t done in months). By day five, he was driving me absolutely crazy.
Then it hit me – I wasn’t following my own advice.
As soon as I got back on track with our regular routine, Batman’s quirky behaviors disappeared almost overnight.
Here’s what I realized: Your dog’s annoying quirks and “bad” behaviors are often signals that something is missing in their routine.
It’s like they’re trying to tell you, “Hey, something’s off here!” The tricky part? It’s not always obvious what that missing piece might be. It could be:
- Physical exercise
- Mental challenge
- Consistency in training
- Structure in their day
- Quality time with you
This is exactly where our trainers excel – diagnosing what’s actually missing when your dog starts acting out. Once properly identified, most issues are surprisingly easy to fix.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: Even we professional trainers struggle with our own dogs from time to time! We’re human. Life gets busy. But as soon as we take our own advice and do our “homework,” our dogs get right back on track.
The good news? The homework is usually pretty simple – it’s just a matter of making the time to do it consistently.
If you’ve fallen behind on your dog’s routine lately, please don’t beat yourself up. Your dog isn’t holding a grudge – I promise! They’re just responding to changes in their environment or routine.
Go play with your dog right now and you’ll see – they don’t care about yesterday. They’ll just be thrilled to get some quality time with you today.
On that note, I’m going to take my own advice and head out for a hike with Batman right now. His ears just popped up! He’s 100% in!
Happy training,
Ryan
P.S. If your dog is showing some new quirky behaviors and you can’t figure out what they’re trying to tell you, our trainers are just a phone call away. Sometimes an outside perspective is all you need to get back on track!
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