Girls with Dogs Podcast Ep 2 – Reinforcing My Dogs’ “Bad” Habits

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Girls with Dogs Podcast Episode 2: reinforcing our dogs' "bad" habits, heading back to work (will our dogs be okay?), unsolicited advice from strangers on social media.

Reinformcing Our Dogs' “Bad” Habits

Some of these behaviors might be labeled as “good” and others might be labeled as “bad.”

One “good” behavior that I've reinforced with Scout through repetition is the statement “Go get your ball.” We live on a lot of property and when I'm throwing the ball, I can lose track, especially if Apollo and Rodrigo are playing too (sometimes they get sidetracked and drop the ball).

Scout is great at nose work and can find the ball quickly.

One “bad” behavior that I've reinforced with all of my dogs is the barking. I have a vocal pack and it's easy to get them riled up. I reinforced this by not understanding how to get ahold of the behavior or by encouraging the behavior during play without creating guidelines of when it's okay and when it's not okay OR understanding WHY my dogs are barking.

Jessica Fisher is a pet behaviorist and she wrote a little book called 7 Miracle Steps to Get Your Dog to Obey Commands (Even if They've Failed Before) and from that book, I learned how to get my dogs' barking under control. It's not perfect because, as I said, we have a vocal bunch, and when a delivery driver, a deer, my in laws, or the dog walker shows up – barking is going to happen. But focusing on the leader (usually Zoey gets everyone going) and acknowledging that I see that someone's here, everyone settles down.

Heading Back to Work After the Pandemic

I'm not back to work yet and I'm praying that the management of my company decide that allowing employees to work from home is the best path going forward because I don't want to go back.

I'm not a fan of Seattle and it's heartbreaking because I loved that city 30 years ago. Today, not so much.

I think my dogs would be fine. I have a dog walker that picks up Scout and Apollo (our most active dogs) twice weekly. It's me who will be a hot mess.

Unsolicited Advice from Strangers on Social Media

Years ago, a woman posted a picture of our four Golden Retrievers (my favorite breed) and the comments came swift and hard – you're dogs are fat, having fat dogs shortens their life, I think it's animal abuse to have fat dogs – and so on. Not one person asked why her dogs were overweight. What I hate about unsolicited advice is that people never ask questions to make sure their advice is on point.

When Scout was diagnosed with cancer, I received so many messages with advice that was WRONG WRONG WRONG. And if I didn't know that it was wrong, Scout wouldn't be doing so hot right now.

It's okay to listen to the advice of others. Just remember to do your OWN homework too.