Halloween - A Real Nightmare for Dogs?

Poor dogs. 

They literally just recovered from the GIANT (man-made-and-scary-as-heck) booms on the 4th of July, and we’re planning the next horror... 

HALLOWEEN. 

A huge fan favorite for humans - especially kids… but not so much for dogs. When we take a second to think about All Hallows, from the perspective of our fave furry friends, well… it can be a real life HORROR SHOW!

**Check out my Halloween Special podcast for how to handle this spooky holiday, from choosing costumes to navigating parades and trick or treaters - you can help your dog love AS MUCH as your kids!  

...But here, in this sBLOG (short blog), I want to talk about listening to your dog. 

Dogs are talking ALL. THE. TIME. 

But somehow we've been (mis)led to believe that being a GOOD dog parent = us just telling them what to do (and them obeying - hence 'obedience'), without considering what they think or feel!  But, if we fall for that, we miss ALL the good stuff.  It's no secret that...

 THE BEST relationships are based on 2-WAY communication.  

I'm pretty sure that we've ALL felt the frustration (and/or loneliness) from being ignored or dismissed by a partner, friend, or co-worker.   NOT feeling heard sucks.

It makes us either act out and push harder to get the thing we need… OR just shut down when we feel disregarded... AND dogs (and kids!) are NO different. 

They NEED us to *really* listen.  And when we do - our relationship with them *really* changes.  If your child was frightened - you'd spot it and ACT immediately. Doing the same for your dog is arguable more important than teaching a SIT or DOWN. It's the piece that can prevent pushing them into an uncomfortable place, where they may feel the need to hide, bark, lunge, growl or even bite!  By truly listening, and making some small changes, you'll make the WORLD of difference to your dog.  

And it’s so EASY. 

Check out these pups. They’re clearly expressing how they feel about dressing up.  Can you guess which ones are HAPPY and which ones are NOT HAPPY? 

(Hint: how comfy-ness of the costume seriously counts!)

Once you’ve guessed, the answers are HERE.

To find out all the GIVEAWAY signs check out our video WHAT YOUR DOG IS DESPERATELY TRYING TO TELL YOU 

So, this Halloween, instead of just grabbing your pup a costume at the store, why not check in with YOUR DOG FIRST, to see if they actually like wearing clothes… If not, why force it? Instead, if being in the holiday spirit is really important to you - maybe a cute bandana?  Feels festive - while not ruining your dog’s vibe!

And it doesn’t stop at clothing...

Watch CLOSELY and you’ll notice LOTS about your dog: where they like to be pet, which treats they prefer, how much they want to go for a walk in the rain, how they feel about riding in the car, who they’d rather not say hello to in the park, the list goes on…

EVERY time you listen and respond, you just put ANOTHER coin in your JOINT TRUST ACCOUNT

❤️❤️❤️

J

xo