I take it if you’re reading this, then you think you’ve done something wrong when it comes to your dog. Maybe you messed up teaching a retrieve (been there) or consider yourself one of the reasons your dog has a more serious problem behaviour such as aggression (also been there), or just straight up bought the wrong dog for your situation (been there!). If you think you’ve done something wrong when it comes to your dog, the chances are you feel pretty guilty about that.
I’d like you to reframe it though. You’re here, reading this blog posts. You’re obviously seeking ways to change your situation and do the best thing for your dog. Every single person who owns dogs makes mistakes. That’s right, each and every one of us! I’ve made a load of mistakes when it comes to my dogs, even after I became a professional dog trainer! I’ve felt incredibly guilty about nearly all of them.
We need to remember that we have done the best we could with the knowledge we had at the time. None of us intentionally lets our dogs down, no matter how major the infraction! Despite our mistakes we are still good people and trainers. Sarah Fisher refers to mistakes as miss takes. There are opportunities to resolve those errors and the learning journey you go on in order to do so will be far more valuable than if you weren’t to make a mistake at all. We can always regroup, take a deep breath, find our cheerleaders and try again.
And honestly, if you’re here reading this post you care enough that you shouldn’t feel guilty. I know you still will because I still do when things go wrong. But that simply means you care and there’s nothing wrong with that!
Chin up, your mistakes are simply miss takes. Step up to the plate, have another go and learn how to do better. You’re trying your hardest and that’s the most anyone can ask of you.