A Gentle Reminder About Progress — Recovery counts

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We often measure progress by whether a reaction happened.

But what happened afterwards matters too.

Perhaps your dog still barked.

Still startled.

Still needed distance.

Still had a big response.

But then…

They recovered more quickly.

They could sniff again.

They took food sooner.

Their body softened.

They sought connection.

They returned to something they enjoyed.

They slept afterwards instead of remaining restless for hours.

The reaction isn’t the whole story.

Recovery is behaviour too.

And a nervous system finding its way back towards safety deserves to be noticed.

Don’t let the difficult moment make everything that happened after it invisible. 🩵