One Small Thing Tuesday 🐾

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Today’s tiny experiment:

Give your dog one more second.

Before repeating the cue.

Before assuming they haven’t understood.

Before reaching towards them.

Before helping.

Before encouraging them forwards.

Before deciding they’re refusing.

Just one more second.

Processing isn’t always instant.

Dogs are taking in information from their bodies, their environment and everything happening around them.

And sometimes our understandable desire to help can accidentally add more information to something they’re already trying to process.

You might be surprised by what happens in that extra second.

A head turn.

A sniff.

A step backwards.

A glance towards you.

A response.

Or perhaps a very useful “no thank you.”

One second isn’t much.

But sometimes space can be measured in time, too. 🩵