Radical Responsibility
Gillian Scarpino
It all starts with your level of commitment
I am currently taking a business course and in one of the modules the instructor was talking about 100% commitment and radical responsibility. He was explaining that when we give ourselves permission to be completely honest with ourselves about the level of commitment we have been giving something, we see it for what it really is. We have a jumping off point. The initial assessment. The truth. For many people, this is hard to do. We are afraid to tell the truth, even to ourselves, because we know we have been lacking. We have been making excuses, even justifiable ones. But when you take the judgement out of it, the labels fall away, too. You’re not a bad person if you weren’t 100% committed to something and you’re not necessarily a good person if you were. However, you are a better person if you can accept that perhaps you’ve been avoiding taking radical responsibility. Because once you accept that, you can change it. Awareness does so much of the work for us.
As with most things, I couldn’t stop thinking about how this applies to dog training. How many of us can say that we are 100% committed to helping our dogs live their best lives? Because this means sacrificing some things ourselves. It means adopting some new habits, which take time and energy. It means getting out of our own heads so we can be present in the moment with our dogs, completely tuned into them so we can decipher their needs and figure out in real time the best ways to communicate with them. It means anticipating their needs 20 minutes, 5 hours, and even 4 years in the future, managing situations and consistently setting them up for success. It means advocating for them, even when your loving mother just wants to love on them when they are jumping all over her. It means learning to say no and set boundaries, and it means taking a stand and deciding that changing yourself in order to best help your dog is worth it, even if it might be difficult at first.
It’s not just a series of techniques and strategies that will help you with any unwanted behaviors, it’s your mindset, and your level of commitment. It’s radical responsibility. If you take away your excuses, you will gain a relationship with your dog that you didn’t even know could exist. And I think we can all agree, the love of a dog is worth it!
Kiah is adjusting well and training is going very well. Keep following Kiah the boxer pups story!
If you’ve followed us for a while, you know that in April of 2020, we adopted a 4-year-old Great Dane/English Mastiff mix named Stryker.
We are going to take you along on our journey raising Kiah – we can already tell she’s going to be a sweet, smart, confident, self-assured, well rounded and playful boxer pup!
Timely vaccinations/titer tests for your dog are crucial to ensure optimal health and protection against diseases. Stay proactive, prevent illness, and secure their well-being.
For many – the idea of a board and train is so appealing, and I can totally see why! Send your dog to an experienced trainer for a couple (2, 3, or 4 weeks) and see instant changes. All those behaviors you could do without?
Leading a pack of dogs means guiding and protecting the group, fostering unity and trust, and embodying assertive yet compassionate leadership to ensure harmony and efficient cooperation.
Kiah is adjusting well and training is going very well. Keep following Kiah the boxer pups story!
If you’ve followed us for a while, you know that in April of 2020, we adopted a 4-year-old Great Dane/English Mastiff mix named Stryker.
We are going to take you along on our journey raising Kiah – we can already tell she’s going to be a sweet, smart, confident, self-assured, well rounded and playful boxer pup!
Timely vaccinations/titer tests for your dog are crucial to ensure optimal health and protection against diseases. Stay proactive, prevent illness, and secure their well-being.
For many – the idea of a board and train is so appealing, and I can totally see why! Send your dog to an experienced trainer for a couple (2, 3, or 4 weeks) and see instant changes. All those behaviors you could do without?
Leading a pack of dogs means guiding and protecting the group, fostering unity and trust, and embodying assertive yet compassionate leadership to ensure harmony and efficient cooperation.
Difficult dogs make better trainers out of us. They force us to keep up, make quick decisions, and put us in some uncomfortable positions that force us to grow. So if you're going through some challenging times with your pup right now, just remember you're a better dog owner for going through the mud with them and there will be rewards on the other side of it all.
Is it just me, or does the universe have a funny sense of humor when it comes to thinking you're in control? It’s like if I’m feeling really ambitious one day, something is always right around the corner to keep me humble and remind me that I’m not actually in charge of anything.
Originally we took Stryker (4 year old Grate Dane/Mastiff Mix) in at our training facility; our goal was to socialize him (although he was already very social with other dogs! Just needed a little tweaking), put him through some rigorous training (he was not a fan of strangers, for instance), and then we would find him a new home.
Let's bust some myths about the wonderful tool that is the muzzle and why some dogs need to be trained to wear them.