#28 - round up February 2024
What joys and experiences am I keeping myself away from by avoiding discomfort?
Hi folks!
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Previously, on Out With Your Dog
#25 - Long leashes and their many uses
#26 - First 2024 hike (photos)
#27 - Teaching your dog to settle outdoors
What I’m paying attention to
To learn more about the intersection between dogs and racism in North America, I highly recommend Ginger’s Naps on Instagram. Racism is embedded in all aspects of our society and cultivating anti-racist practices starts with being aware of how it shows up, including in the dog world and the outdoors. See also Noami Grevemberg’s piece for Ruffwear.
As someone who loves the outdoors, social media feeds me a steady diet of #VanLife. It was refreshing to read Monica Shaw’s essay about the less glamourous reality of living in a van full-time with a dog.
What I’ve noticed
I write this newsletter three times a month, giving me one or two weeks off, during which I promptly forget I have the skills to write a newsletter. At the beginning of every single month, I have to remind myself that I do in fact know how to make sentences to convey a message.
The break is well worth the resistance to restart. It’s familiar enough that I don’t let my fingers stalling on the keyboard scare me off. I take a deep breath and turn the key in the ignition again. Eventually my brain starts purring out words again. If I can help just one person with my writing, then it’s well worth the discomfort of not being able to control how people receive my writing. I will only get better -at writing and at helping people- through practice, so this is, if nothing else, a practice.
Building a tolerance to discomfort is also something I’ve been thinking about when it comes to dog training. Bucky and I are well set into our routines, and I have to admit, I have been coasting. Every interaction with your dog is a training moment so -in a sense-I am still training Bucky, but I am not teaching him anything new.
Whenever I try to teach Bucky something new and he doesn’t get it quickly, I know intellectually that I just need to teach him another way, … but in practice, he starts whining and I freeze, my brain becoming full of static. The discomfort calls back to our first years together when we were both an anxious mess. Unpleasant, yes, and I’m far enough removed from those times to feel safe despite the discomfort. This makes me wonder:
Can I use this time as an opportunity to improve my practical dog training skills? (Setting future me up for success should they decide to adopt a new dog.)
What can I teach Bucky if I’m willing to work through the discomfort?
What fun and low stakes behaviours can I start with?
How can I make the process joyful for both Bucky and myself?
And a prompt for you…
What joys and experiences are *you* keeping yourself away from by avoiding discomfort?