It's all Mirrors and Magnets these days!

Oftentimes our dogs get most of our attention when they are misbehaving. The dog is jumping up and nipping at our clothing when we walk in the door, "Holy tater tots! Stop that! Fru Fru get off of me! NO! Fru Fru, NO! No nipping, Fru Fru, bad dog!" 

He is getting stimulated by your enthusiastic energy, touch and attention when he jumps (or barks, or whimpers, or nips…). Your dog is thriving off of your negative attention. He's hyper and you join in and mirror his energy. 

Instead, walk in calmly, when he jumps up, don't join his energy. 

This new, level way of being around your dog will be contagious. Along with this new viral calmness, you'll be on a quest to seek out your dog when he is being calm, relaxed, and behaving the way you want him to. Instead of ignoring him during these moments, you will be drawn to him like a magnet and these are times when you will give him attention. 

"Fru Fru, you are being so calm. What a good boy. Who's a good boy? Yer a good boy. Goo goo goo."

This is done consistently by everyone in the household and everyone should understand what behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable for this to work. There’s not 5 minutes of magnet training per day, this is just a new way of being. You can't diet for 50% of the day and then eat cupcakes the rest of the day, "I don't understand why I'm not losing weight! This diet isn't working!"

When you're out on a walk, or someone comes into your home and your dog misbehaves and someone wants to pet your dog who is misbehaving, you can kindly explain:

"I love that you want to pet my dog, but he's in training right now so I prefer that you don't. He obviously likes you. Hey, I love that sweatshirt, is it handmade?"