The comfort zone….

How does one build confidence? It certainly isn’t staying in your comfort zone. Sometimes we have to do scary things in life like scheduling your own doctor’s appointment (that one is hard for me). 

With dogs a lot of people don’t think about helping grow their confidence, they keep it easy by staying in the comfort zone, avoid the fight, avoiding confrontation, but what that really is doing is causing more harm to the dog. By allowing the dog to never grow and learn in a scary moment is more stressful than helping them through it. The world is never ending with stressors and difficult situations, your job is to help prepare your dog the best you can to help handle the world as it throws curve balls at you. Sometimes we half to bring the dog to the vet and the dog doesn’t like the car ride. 

If your dog struggles getting in the car, you need to be able to show them how to get in safely and help them through that scary moment. I’ve met plenty of dogs that either didn’t like climbing stairs, didn’t like swimming, didn’t like even climbing on a rock because it was “out” of their comfort zone. What I did was help them achieve that goal and see them gain confidence by doing that small task. 

If your dog doesn’t gain confidence by staying in their comfort zone, you as the owner/handler also won’t gain confidence. I’ve seen transformations between dog and owner just by learning how to walk together and it’s amazing, both parties feel good and walk with their head held high. Avoidance might feel like you’re helping but what you’re really doing is keeping both of you stuck.

Structure, guidance, and intentional challenges are what actually create a confident dog. So if it feels a little uncomfortable? That is OK. Here’s something both of you can do together: 

The International Dog Park Association, they welcome everyone to participate in doing activities with your dog and helping each other grow. You can either take their online class to help you get started or you get right to it and start doing some “parkour” exercises with your dog! This can help add more fun into your walk with your dog and earn some fun titles while doing it (and at the same time your growing confidence). (https://www.dogparkour.org/)

So what does your comfort zone look like with your dog? Can you get your dog to climb on a rock and balance? Can you get your dog to jump over an item? If you can’t, that is a great place to start. 

Don’t limit your dogs confidence by staying in the comfort zone.

Bels Dog Training 

801-589-2735 

Belsdog.training 

[email protected]