I think this is a topic that is rarely I've ever talked about in dog training, but it is the one thing that affects each and every dog owner on the planet.

Everybody who's attempting to communicate or train your dog will be affected by this.

Hi, I'm Susan Garrett, this is Shape by Dog, where dog training makes sense at both ends

of the leash.

Today I'm going to talk about something that I probably am not entirely qualified to speak on.

However, I'm going to share my perspective on the topic and it is

emotional resilience. And I'm not talking about resilience in competition. I'm not talking about

swallowing your emotions and trudging through something. I'm talking about emotional resilience

in your relationship with a dog when

you're trying to train. Because our nervous system is probably the strongest antecedent in the

ABCs of dog training that there could possibly be. Far more powerful than any meatball that you could give your dog,

far more powerful than any training plan that you could come up with. And definitely,

far more powerful than any tool or trick or hack that you might be thinking of employing

in your dog training. So what do I mean by the phrase of emotional resilience?

It's the ability to adapt in stressful situations or overcome powerful emotions or deal with challenges

in a way that doesn't create permanent overwhelm in your system. And why did I choose to talk about this today?

Because when I read comments from the students in our online community, I see it woven as an

undertone in every single comment. There may be somebody talking about losing their job and then

saying, this is what I've been doing and why it's not

working. There may be somebody talking about they unfortunately just lost their spouse. And then this is

why dog training isn't working for them. And they're not realizing the impact of the

dysregulation of their nervous system

...