COMMITMENT IS KEY TO ALL SUCCESSES IN LIFE - INCLUDING LIVING WITH A DOG.

COMMITMENT IS THE COMMON THREAD THAT DETERMINES SUCCESS IN LIFE, REGARDLESS IF IT IS WORK, RECREATION OR RELATIONSHIPS.

The most talented musician will not master an instrument without practice; love alone does not guarantee a lifelong relationship with your partner; we teach our children to hang in there, even if success does not come right away; our investment banker advices to stick to a long term plan.

Then why is it, when it comes to our relationships with dogs, that we are looking for the quick fix? Why do professionals, even positive trainers, look, invent and recommend yet another quick-fix-tool that busts the bark, controls the walk, zaps a perfect recall. Dog experts have a wonderful opportunity to mainstream kind handling by committing owners to seek and apply mindful methods and permanent solutions and away from the new and improved nose-thing, choke collar, noise-gadget, or the indiscriminant use of food treats.

All of that is symptom control. If you want companionship with a living and sentient being, you need to learn how to engage, teach and lead without doing harm (from the dog's point of view).

Once a plan of action is set up, you have to stick to it. You need to be aware that there are sometimes plateaus and setbacks, as described in Dump Dog.

Be confident that you can overcome hurdles. Building trust, essential for every relationship, takes time, especially if mistakes were made in the past and the dog has learned not to trust.

Committed people are confident, optimistic, persistent, involved, in control - and successful. Be committed to your dog and accelerate the success of your relationship.

Visualize the end result. All the things you would love to do, would your dog be reliably well behaved. Then learn what it takes to get there - stick to it - and you will succeed. Do not believe others that might tell you that your dog is too dumb, or bossy, or damaged. Your dog, like your child, will live up (and down) your expectations.

The C in CALL also stands for Caring; to make a conscious decision to be compassionate (uh, another C-word), to see the world from your dog's point of view. It means to supply adequate food, water, shelter, veterinary care if needed, but above all, social belonging.

Get to know your dog, learn what she is passionate about and become involved. One can care for someone without being caring. Care means to meet the dog's physical needs, caring takes care of the mental and emotional ones as well.

If you set that level of engagement, you will be astounded what your dog offers in return - attention, focus, trust, obedience, a willingness to work, companionship.

Go from commitment to assessment which is STEP 2 in CALL.



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