But how many reps did you do?
Bear and Toby running in the “dog yard” which required leashes to get to it
On last week’s episode of Riding in the Weeds, Tash and I dig into the fact that reps is the key to success with anything. Inspired by a podcast she shared with me, I realized it’s no different with our pets.
I’m guilty of this one and the painful learning curve that comes with it. My dogs were never all that well behaved. They were my very first pets, and I made a lot of mistakes with them.
They never learned to walk on leashes for starters. We were the embarrassing ones in the vet’s office with the crying dog that wouldn’t. stop. That combination meant the dogs couldn’t really go anywhere, and that was disappointing, especially when we moved into a beautiful state park full of miles of trails.
Fast forward many years, and I needed to move again, this time onto a large farm that did not have a fenced in back yard. Dogs that don’t walk on leashes and no fences was not a great combo. There was a small paddock close to the house that we were able to fence in with some wire, but that still meant walking to and from it, you guessed it, on leashes.
The first several days were miserable. I’d touch the leashes and the dogs would go bananas. But very quickly they figured out that it wasn’t worth expending the energy to get that excited just to go out to go pee. Within two weeks leashes were a non-event.
We put the reps in.
This meant that we were soon able to take lovely walks all over the farm enjoying the beautiful scenery. The part that makes me sad is that we missed out on almost 10 years of being able to take fun walks because I didn’t have the patience and knowledge to put the reps in to get through the learning curve together with my dogs.
Almost everything I regret with any of my pets boils down to putting in the reps together.
Not going to lie, the reps are going to be uncomfortable (more on that later!), but they lead to the most amazing places of joy and connection with your pets. The relationship is deeper and richer, and you get to experience more together because your confidence, and your pet’s confidence is higher. And let’s face it, it also leads to a lot more fun together!
Where are you avoiding doing reps with your pets? What ways can you add reps in that will help you grow your skills together so you get to do more fun things?
