Firstly he's getting partial meals lately so I can dole out the rest of his calories throughout the day as kibble or treats.

But also
- praise and reward whenever I see him doing something appropriate. This is as much about appreciating the things he does well as it is about encouraging good behavior from him.

- More frequent challenging chews. At least once a week, pref. twice. It really allows him to work hard and exercise natural chewing behavior in a healthy and appropriate way, and he sleeps like a rock after haha. Got a freezer full of moose bones to work on this.

- Consistent small training sessions working on simple behaviors. We're focusing hard on 'Watch' right now because I'm reading Fiesty Fido and trying to implement some of those strategies for leash reactivity.

- Walking back on several grooming tasks and trying to desensitize more effectively. Right now that means make a huge fuss and throw a treat party if he even attempts to lick some tooth gel from the tube, but I intend to extend this to nail clipping work once I'm seeing some improvements there.

- Once we're not buried in snow (goodness knows when that'll be) I'm hoping to make a real effort to do trail hikes as our walks at least a couple times during the weekday. This is difficult largely due to vague anxiety issues on my end, but I believe it'll be a great thing for him. And me. I need to learn to chill on walks and let him be a dog more often.

I fall into the trap of walk time = work time very easily, which is fine some of the time. Not all of the time. I'm more likely to chill out during family walks, but this time of year those tend to mostly happen on weekends. And we joke that I'm "strict mom" when it comes to leash manners and the like, but I also don't want him to feel suppressed around me.

So this is part accountability, part me sharing some strategies and ideas that I've learned about fairly recently - or at least only started exploring fairly recently.

I've come to accept that I tend to half-ass desensitization processes/training protocols and jump from early stages to super difficult much too quickly. It's a common but terrible habit and I want to fix it now.

I've been absolutely gifted with an extremely tolerant dog with only relatively minor issues who puts up with all my novice fumbling and gaffs with more grace than I give him credit for.

And the smart thing to do is build good habits now, and not if and when I have a dog in front of me who's actively suffering behaviorally (Sam gets overaroused easily sure, but he's not suffering day to day like a dog with untreated anxiety often is).

I am so with you on a lot of this. Particularly 'get out and do more woods stuff where the dogs dog' (leash or long line or not) and BIG TIME in not splitting behavior down enough.

Yeah, here it'll still be on a long-line because there are frequently other people and we're not too far from livestock/a road. But when we visit the in-laws he gets off-leash wood time (assuming we're outside of the baby critter ban on off-leash dogs)

But also yeah. Sam's smart! He picks up on early levels stuff so quick, I make the mistake of forgetting he needs to generalize way more than I've done in the past.

I'm pretty ridiculous with it. I will tell you straight up it's because I get bored/impatient and also that in not splitting it down/making it way too hard it ends up probably taking as long or longer as it would anyway.

AND YET my inclination is still 'right off the deep end'

Ahaha I know, impatience is a big thing with me, too.

About threshold: "I realized that just because he was functioning didn't mean it was good for him"

Oh. It me.

Talking about how it's possible for a dog to be over threshold but still able to respond to commands.

Yep. Or I just forget it because she's behaving normally, half zone out and suddenly I'm 3 feet from something and fuck me, USE YOUR BRAIN SELF.

and to a certain degree yay I' not tense with her that is a good thing/good for her but there has to be something between hypervigilent and not having my brain in my head at all

Definitely. I just boggle sometimes at how closely cases of extreme anxiety and fear in dogs mirror my own experiences with anxiety, down to people on the outside assuming the behaviors associated are under your control.

It shouldn't be a surprise, honestly, but it is every time I run across something that resonates with me.

It kinda makes me want to work with anxious dogs some days, but I do NOT have the spoons for that right now, let alone the skills

Heh. I just volunteered myself and a couple of the dogs to do decoy works with my local trainers.

...the local trainers who are also friends.

Haha, I figured.

I would not want to be the person directly responsible though. One of those is enough.

I still want to explore going into dog behavior, but I've shifted my focus to getting a steady job in an easier field to break into first, so I can spend my spare time (and money) exploring working with dogs more thoroughly.

Through getting involved in local clubs, sports, etc. Maybe taking trainer classes or attending seminars.

But having an income will allow me to take my time and not feel I have to jump into the field before my skills are at the level they should be to consider myself a professional.

Yeah, and honestly clients will be much more likely to happen if you're involved in those things.

There's that aspect as well, yes

AND you'll have an idea of what you can do in the area/where the niches are.

Yeah, I was getting really overwhelmed trying to figure out how to get into the field with my current state of "knowledge sponge but little practical experience" and that all the educational courses were far from local, etc. Finally realized I have to put myself in a more secure position so I have time to build up skill and experience I need.

The money to finance the skill and experience will probably help too. Basically all around sounds like a really good plan.

Definitely. And on a personal level, I'll feel much better about myself to be contributing to the household instead of mucking around blindly trying to make my way in a field that can be very insular and uncertain.

I know other people jump right in and it works great for them! But this plan definitely feels more right for me.

I know other people do it too, but honestly I don't even know any who don't also have day jobs, much less who managed to jump and make it work. VERY different area of course, but it's definitely a thing.

Yup. I'm in the very privileged position of having a spouse who can support us even though I'm not working - and living in a country that makes that easier in many ways - so theoretically I'm in a better position to do that. But it's not very practical.