Suzy's Blog

What is micro-managing your dog? Very often I see people in off-leash areas that are constantly calling their dog. They do not allow their dog to just be, they have to make sure that every move is controlled and that they are in charge. But are they truly in charge when they do that? How does the dog see the situation?

What I have noticed is that those dogs often do not listen much to their owners, which makes the owner even more nervous and wanting to be on top of their dog. If your dog knows that you are always chasing after her, why should she keep track of where you are going? The habit can be broken easily, but the person has to be willing to be changing their ways! The biggest issue is for the person to trust that their dog will return. Most dogs will keep an eye on you, but if you have trained them that you are always chasing after them, they know you are always keeping an eye on them.

What makes animals different from each other? What makes their personality? Are we acknowledging their differences?

All of us who had a few different animals in our lives can say that there are no two that are alike ever. Even in my working with people I have never encountered an animal that is exactly like another. Yet so often I work with people that expect their newly acquired animal to be like the one that passed and that was the beloved pet. To me this is a very interesting phenomenon, since when I ask you, if you ever had two animals that were alike, you will say 'No', but somewhere when you get another animal you expect to see them be like 'Fluffy'. What is the compulsion to compare?

Would you be willing to recognize that with that approach you are asking the animal to be different then who they actually are? You are asking them to fit into your idea of what they should be rather than acknowledging the being that they are. What does that mean? Every being is different in the way they see the world. May it be dog, cat or horse, they all will have their own unique way to be in the word. They will have certain things that come easier to them and others that may not. Some horses like to jump, others don't, some dogs like to chew on things, others cannot be bothered with that, some cats like to cuddle, others don't and there are endless variations of these examples.

Every year 2 to 4 Million puppies are bought from puppy mills, operations that function under terrible conditions. In a puppy mill the bitches usually live their lives in very small cages, with very little to no human interaction, under terrible sanitary conditions with the sole purpose of having one litter after another.

Puppies from these places are often riddled with medical conditions from the start, have no positive association to people and grew up under sub-standard conditions. They often end up in pet shops, or are being sold privately under the disguise of coming from a reputable breeder.

Now the number of pets that are being euthanized in shelters every year is also about 2 Million. These animals are being killed because there are no homes for them. At least that is what we are told. So half of theses killed animals are dogs and there is a demand for twice to four times as many dogs out there. So if only half of the people that shop from puppy mills would go get a shelter dog, there would be no need to euthanize another dog in any shelter.