It Begins with Me and Ends with Sierra
by Natalie
After adopting Sierra, I learned many new things about myself. I learned that I could be patient if I tried (for the most part). I learned that I could be protective (some would even say maternal – not me though). I learned that even after a long, tiring day, I could still muster up the energy to play with my loving, excited dog who always greets me at the door with her tail wagging and a (cat) toy in her mouth.
It’s crazy to think of how easily Nate and I fell into a routine with Sierra, and now I don’t know how I ever lived without her. But as much as I love Sierra (and trust me, I love her a lot), this blog post is not dedicated to that. Actually, what I really want to write about are my failures so far. Well, one in particularly anyway.
It has to do with training Sierra. I like to compare training her with making a resolution to work out at the gym. When we first adopted her, I was excited to train her to be like Penny and Elvis. That was my first mistake – having the expectation that she would be just like them in a couple weeks. John always reminds me (and I always conveniently forget) that it took him almost a year to get Penny to where she is now. Just like when someone goes to the gym 
expecting to get a six-pack after a week, I was expecting Sierra to be very well-behaved after a short amount of time. Don’t get me wrong, she is already amazing, but she does have her own set of issues that I need to focus on helping her with.
And that brings me to my next point: at a gym, cardio won’t cut it if you want a toned stomach and arms. You need to use the machines, lift weights, do crunches/squats/lunges, etc. Dusty dumbbells do no good. So it is with Sierra. She’s only as good as her owner, and as much as I love that she’s comfortable in our house or other places we go to a lot, I want her to be herself 100% of the time. It begins with me, and I need to focus my energy on helping her. I may think that skipping her daily training session in favor of cuddling on the couch will be okay, but I have no one to blame but myself when she doesn’t come when called.
Training Sierra to be secure in herself and comfortable around people starts and ends with exposure and socialization. With that being said, if you live in southern California, join us at the 2nd Annual Pittie Fest tomorrow! See John’s previous post to learn more about it.
Recommended Posts
Through No Fault of Their Own Part V
September 12, 2017
A Letter To The Men of Pawsitive Change at Corcoran State Prison
September 06, 2017
No Fault of Their Own Part IV
August 22, 2017
Comments
Comments are closed.
You are absolutely right Natalie. Our dogs are only as good as the amount of time we put into their training. We all want the quick fix (me included), but that isn’t reality.