Chrissy 0:02
Welcome to The Dogs of our lives Podcast. I'm Chrissy Messick, your host and owner of the nature of animals, my dog training and behavior consulting business. Get ready to hear journeys from challenging behaviors to heartwarming successes, and everything in between. Our episodes will feature personal stories from clients, colleagues, and professionals all centered around our favorite animal companion friends. Each episode, you'll gain insights and valuable tools. From those that have walked the path that you are on with your dog will discuss mindset shifts, growth, training, tips, lessons learned, and so much more. By the end of each episode, you'll feel inspired, have a deeper understanding of your dog, and walk away with actionable steps to improve both of your lives. Today, we're talking with Rebecca and Teague and we're going to hear their story of how both of them have worked on gaining confidence and work through their stress, anxiety and reactivity, Rebecca will share her experiences and insights with us. If you find this episode helpful, please leave up to a five star review. And if you know of someone that could benefit from hearing this story, please share now let's dig in. So Rebecca, thank you for being on the podcast with us. I'm so excited to have you and tea here. Although I don't know what Teague is doing. barking at the kids in the backyard. He's
Rebecca 1:24
right over here. So he might make a guest appearance. We'll see. Oh,
Chrissy 1:28
good. So thank you for coming on and sharing and just being vulnerable and telling your story and hopes that it'll help someone else out there and inspire people that are going through kind of the same situation that you are. Yeah, we'll get started. Do you just want to tell us a little bit about yourself, the environment you live in, and just a little bit about tea like his breed age personality? Just a little bit about him? Yeah,
Rebecca 1:53
so my name is Rebecca, Teague and I live together in like a single family home in a suburb of Boulder, I would say. So suburban environments. So we live in a neighborhood, like roads and sidewalks, narrow sidewalks. But one nice thing about our neighborhood is we have a lot of trails that go through it and a big lake kind of just like five minutes from us. So anyone from Colorado. We're in Lafayette and so we're right by Wanaka Lake Teague is a 100 pound German Shepherd. He will actually be seven a week from tomorrow. This weekend, I will be birthday present and shopping for him. And his personality, I would say Teague is very full of joy is generally very happy, even though he's a reactive German Shepherd. So it might not seem that way. He is protective. You know, he does his thing that he's been bred to do and sort of lets people know when he is not comfortable with them, which is. But generally he loves to play. He loves to learn. He's incredibly smart. And he loves to eat, but he really loves to play and to learn. And he you know, he's generally very joyful. I would say
Chrissy 3:22
that he's a big boy.
Rebecca 3:23
He's a big boy, a big baby.
Chrissy 3:26
We've been we're working together now kind of off and on for,
Rebecca 3:30
I would say almost six years, because I think we met you the August right after he turned one. And shortly after that, we started working with you. So yeah, yeah,
Chrissy 3:41
it's been off and on and just kind of waxes and wanes. And we work together and then you work on stuff for a while. And so it's not been every day for the last six years.
Rebecca 3:53
So I think we first started working with you like one day a week, and then took a break during COVID Like when when the world shut down. And then you came back into our lives more regularly when I had a meltdown.
Chrissy 4:05
Yeah, so I, I think that's a big part of what I love to do is just support the human as well as the dog. So let's just go back a little bit in time. Tell us about your childhood growing up and kind of what did you learn about values, beliefs and how it shaped your thoughts, feelings in attitude toward animals or about animals?
Rebecca 4:28
I do recall sort of floating the idea of wanting a dog at some point. And my dad was like, no, like, we're not getting a dog like I don't want to clean up the poop. I don't want to have to walk it like and you're not going to walk it you know I was in elementary school. You know, people would always say like, dogs are so amazing. And I never really understood that just because I didn't have much exposure to dogs. I was a little or maybe a lot intimidated by larger dogs. And then much later in life, some friends I mine from law school, one of them got a German shepherd. And I had like no idea how to interact with this dog. Her name was Duchess, Duchess. And I had to like figure each other out. And you know, she was a German Shepherd puppy. Of course, she was like a complete spaz. But I now know much more. But anyway, that's, that's a little bit of the background with animals and such.
Chrissy 5:24
How did learning how to interact with Duchess? Did that change kind of your relationship with animals in general, when you were younger? I
Rebecca 5:34
think it maybe just gave me a hint of like, oh, I don't need to be scared or intimidated or whatever, by large dogs. So she probably was one or just shy of one she just wanted to play. And I finally figured that out. And that just sort of helped.
Chrissy 5:49
Okay, so it sounds like she helped you a little bit. A little bit.
Rebecca 5:54
I had no idea what I was getting into with Teague. But
Chrissy 5:58
so tell me a little bit about how you and your ex husband what brought you guys together with Teague.
Rebecca 6:06
My ex husband had wanted a dog and he had wanted a German Shepherd, which I was fine with. He had, he had had some prior experience with search and rescue dogs. And so that's what had drawn him to the breed. So we researched around, like we knew German Shepherds could have risks with their hips and their joints and stuff and some other genetic conditions. So we did a ton of research. And we actually went to one of the AKC shows here in Denver, we just sort of milled about and met some of the breeders that were there showing their dogs and we met this woman thought she seemed reasonable and like a good human. And so we arranged to meet with her and learn more about her dogs and the way she breeds her dogs and whatnot, through that whole process, we just learned a lot about if you're gonna go the breeder route, what to look for what not to look for things like that, like she made a point that she only had one like female dog that she bred at a time. And she only asked that female dog to be pregnant once per year, whereas others we would find like what have multiple litters per dog per year. So you're just like mean, imagine a human being pregnant multiple times a year, like, you're just like all your life. Yeah. overworking the dog. So we decided to go with her and basically put our names on a list for like the next litter. So this was like a January. And the litter was born in in June. And it was actually my ex husband who picked out the biggest boy of the litter. And that is the take has ended up being. And the breeder, actually, she'd sort of talked to us about how in her experience, the girls often ended up being more protective and more reactive, like mama bear instincts would come out. So that's why we picked a boy. And then he just picked the biggest of the litter. So that is that's what we got. That's how it came into my life.
Chrissy 8:02
A couple of questions with when you guys were discussing about getting a dog, did you have any nervous feelings about it or
Rebecca 8:11
so I forgot one little snippet. So a couple of years prior to this, we actually did try to adopt a dog from the shelter from the Boulder Valley Humane Society very much on a whim. And we actually brought it home with us one night, and we were just unprepared. And we ended up taking it back, which broke my heart like I was sobbing. But I think that experience sort of sort of led me to like when we were getting tea, I was like, Okay, I'm going to prepare, I'm going to get all the things like I had all the lists, like I had all the supplies, or I thought I did and this is just totally my personality. So I work in insurance benefits right so I had like researched the heck out of like an insurance policy for him and done like a little research on like what food to feed him. But I had done no research on like potty training, no research on like, crate training or like behavior training or like if you want to call it obedience I had like, it was just hilarious what I had focused on prior to then I was like, oh, when we brought him home mostly excited and just like blissfully unaware as to what I was getting myself.
Chrissy 9:28
I know your ex husband, he picked him out because he was the biggest and did you have any sort of like connection to him right away? Or did that grow over time?
Rebecca 9:39
I didn't it for me it really grew over time. And again, I think that was because I really had no idea about dogs. You know, I had just interacted with friends dogs or neighbor's dogs here and there. And I just didn't feel like I had I don't know the language or the knowledge or the whatever to lay or even like to know what to expect. What's normal. What's Not like how do I interact with this dog? And actually, my ex husband spent a lot of time with him for the first little while until we separated. So I think he formed that bond more. And it was really during COVID. That Tegan, my bond, like really accelerated. I mean, we had some before then for sure. But it really accelerated during COVID. Because we were just with each other so much
Chrissy 10:23
into going through a divorce with a dog. Yeah,
Rebecca 10:27
yeah, I know, some people like do joint custody of the dogs where you're like trading the dog back and forth. Or if you have too many children, dog goes on a same schedule as the human children. I've also heard where the dog goes opposite to the human children's. So like one adult always has something some companionship in the house for better for worse, we did not have human children. And we just we sort of agreed that I would keep Teague. I think my ex has been devastated. Very sad to leave him but but agreed that was the best thing for everybody involved, because I had the house in the yard and that sort of support the training patterns that he had gotten into. So that was sort of the practicalities of the divorce. And so the divorce was final in the fall of 19. And then obviously, then, like COVID happened, like almost immediately later. And I would say COVID Coming on the heels of the divorce more or less, it would have been incredibly harder for me if I had not had Teague. I mean, it was hardest it was it was hard on everybody. But for those first couple of months where we were all doing that, like super isolation and social distancing and whatnot. Like it was just me and Teague mean t like out in the world. We went for extra long walks, because he was to at this point and still had a lot of energy and needed to get his energy out. And again, the pandemic's sort of coincided with my life and what I was going through just having Teague and that companionship was super helpful for me, that's
Chrissy 11:59
nice that you and your ex husband could like logically talk through away of custody. You want to Yeah, yesterday,
Rebecca 12:09
to be honest, I felt very strongly that teachers should stay with me. And because particularly the my ex husband was going to live in like an apartment situation. I think he he did not want to be like trading him back and forth every week. And I saw the wisdom in that. And that came from some of his preferences and life experiences. Yeah. And in the end, I'm so glad for it. I don't think I would have let t go 100%. And I know I know. It was very hard for him. I know, it was very hard for him to let go. So Right.
Chrissy 12:38
And so he hasn't seen him for a while then Right?
Rebecca 12:41
No, he saw him once Fall of Night team when things were being finalized, or maybe some or whatever. And it was after he had been moved out for a few months. And he had to come over to get some like stuff of his that was still here. And he asked could he go inside and CTQ and I wasn't home. And I said sure. And I got home later. And I have never seen Teague so sad. Oh, yeah. He was like curled up in a little ball, just like sad. Whereas He, you know, interestingly, he had not been like moping around the house. But he obviously knew him and you know, missed him once he was gone. And that. I mean, we didn't have intentions to that for my ex husband to see him again. But I was like, Okay, we're one one and done. Like that was it and I don't know that he would have felt sad every time if we were training him like every week or something. But just that sort of random visit. I was like, Okay, nope, that was not good for him. Like in the long run. We're not gonna do that again. And almost years, I guess. Yeah, yeah. So
Chrissy 13:39
at the point of the divorce, what were you feeling emotionally and mentally knowing that you were going to be solely responsible for Teague? Yeah,
Rebecca 13:49
so I think at the time, more so of the actual separation, when my ex husband moved out is when, you know, my first initial feelings were coming up about being solely responsible for fatigue. And, you know, in that moment, it was such a, not not an emergency, not really a crisis. But you know, I was, I was in it. And I was just, that was my choice and a decision that I would take care of Teague. And so I was very much in that place of like, okay, well, I'll figure out how to make this work. The hard times came later, basically, because initially, I was just like, I'm going to survive, I'm going to find a way to make it work. Two big things maybe initially, so Teague has generally gotten to accidentally ever since he was eight weeks or 12 weeks old, when he could go out in the world and my ex husband used to do the evenings and I would do the mornings. And so you know immediately that was something I had to figure out how to do come home from work in Denver and get that extra walk and you know that extra 45 minutes out of my day and you know, but again, I was just figuring out how to make it work but I can remember one time, February March, so it was dark. It was cold, you know the days are short and tea I had this massive reaction to something, either a person or an animal or something. And I was just at my wit's end. And I'm like crying there in the middle, nobody was hurt, everybody was fine. I was just scared and exhausted and just totally overwhelmed with like, how am I How am I going to do this? You know, and he's so reactive, and he would have been just a little over one year old. Yeah, maybe one and a half at this point. So still pretty young. But you know, we were halfway through our walk. And I was like, out in the middle of the neighborhood, and like, well, Rebecca, you gotta get yourself home. So walked home, crying, basically, and just kept at it the next day. So yeah, sort of an evolution of feelings between, like, I love this dog, I'm gonna take care of this dog and do everything I can and get the systems in place to you know, we all have those moments when life is hard when it all piles up, and you're exhausted. And like, one little thing happens to tip it all over, and you just have a moment of like, Oh, God, I don't know, if I can do this, again, you don't really have a choice. So you just keep going. So is that I would say, for initial thoughts and feelings?
Chrissy 16:10
Yeah. I mean, that's a big huge adjustment going from, you know, having the support of two people with a dog that needs a lot of stimulation, you know, yeah, you're going to one person. So that's a big, huge shift and adjustment. And I know, you're talking about one of his reactive moments, and just that, you know, the crying and stuff, you know, there's a lot of people out there that that have been living with, you know, reactive or sensitive dogs for a long time that have many of these reactions, you know, those scary reactions, and soon the human, you become more sensitive to them. So then you're not like you're hyper vigilant and extra, like reactive to certain triggers and things too. So not only are you feeling the stress of like, I don't know if I can do this, but then also almost feeling triggered as well, you know, starting to have those feelings as well. And so learning, learning how to deal with that skillfully.
Rebecca 17:09
Yeah, just if I could key off that. So I continue to have struggles like self consciousness, I would say, like, what are people thinking about me? Oh, they think like, I'm a horrible dog mom, or like, judging me, they don't even know. And for a long time, and I had to work through with a therapist who specializes, you know, she started as a dog trainer, and then became a therapist, a human therapist, and so she knows all the things. And she knows Teague personally, from when she worked at his boarding facility, but she had to help me work through like, basically de escalating some of my triggers around him, because although I love him deeply, like I had a lot of feelings, because he would frequently remind me of the divorce and my ex husband and, and all of that. And I had to work through a lot of that and separate that out. So that was really helpful, too. Yeah,
Chrissy 17:59
that's good. So I guess start from the beginning a little bit, tell us a little bit about Tieks challenges and like your training process, yeah, approach. And what you saw during that we
Rebecca 18:12
were like, so naive, and it was like, very quickly apparent to us that like, we got to figure out how to train this dog, you know, just just basic commands, but then also like how to interact with him communicate with him. And so we had the person come out to the house and like, show us their methodology, and part of it included like a squirt bottle thing for when the dog does something you don't want them to do. The first time we squirted tea. He was like, you know, he didn't like it. But then the next time he like, tried to catch the water with his mouth, he was like, Well, this is fun. This is a fun game. Let's do it again. And we were like, Oh, my goodness, okay, we need some sort of new something. So it was like rapidly deteriorating because we're also like potty training him. So we're like up a few times in the middle of the night. Nobody's sleeping. He's a very vocal dog. He was very vocal as a puppy. And just like, we were at our wits end, like very frayed nerves. I honestly cannot remember how I found it. But there used to be a place in Denver called PA school. Unfortunately, they've closed their doors now, but and they were all based on clicker training, positive reinforcement, the way the way they were set up is like you come for like a free intro session. And then you bought like packages of classes, I think so we showed up like early one Saturday morning, like, again, nobody had slept, and they teach us about the clicker and they send us home with one and teach us how to like they called it loading the clicker of like, just treat, click treat, click like get the dog use to how it works. We did that. And in the beginning. I mentioned Teague loves food. Teague is very food motivated. You know, I know some dogs are toy motivated or other things like Teague is incredibly food motivated. So that At worked. I also mentioned he has always loved to learn how to get like, a little frustrated when you're trying to teach him a new thing, and he can't quite figure it out. But then he'll like have a lightbulb moment and figure it out. And he'd be like, Oh, that was it. Like, okay, like, oh, I can climb stairs, like whatever it is. It was so positive and joyous to be able to like, raise rather than scold and have him like, you could almost see him like shine a little bit when he would get all this praise, or like, you know, click and a treat for doing something that he was like, Oh, that's it, that's all you wanted? Like, it was almost like, he'd be like, Why didn't you just say that the first time, I have been saying this, but the clicker training was just it really probably saved all of us.
Chrissy 20:47
Oh, squirrel moment. So clicker training, is when we use a clicker, or a word or noise to mark a behavior to let the dog know that yes, that's what I would like you to do. And also to to let the dog know that the reinforcement or the reward is coming. So it's kind of like a bridge. So say, for instance, you're teaching your dog to sit, you give them the cue, a hand cue. As soon as they do it, you click or you say yes, and then you give them the treat. And so it's a way that we let the dog know that yes, that's what I want you to do. And to that the reinforcement is coming.
Rebecca 21:25
Oh, I just want to own that. Like, since I have no experience with dogs, sometimes I feel like it's my anxiety that comes out of like, oh, I don't know if is this safe or not? That like keeps me raining Teague and maybe more than he needs to be.
Chrissy 21:38
So if you could go back through a timeline and pinpoint critical times of difficulty and how you were feeling in that moment, and how did you work through them
Rebecca 21:47
all of the difficult time? Well, maybe there's a couple of categories of difficult times. But for me, the hardest thing for me to work through reactivity on walks and like managing him reacting to people or dogs or creating enough distance, or people having off leash dogs or people saying just mean things or, or non understanding things. Like one time, there was a guy in my neighborhood and he would see Teague being reactive. And then he stopped me one time from across the street. And he's like, I don't understand, like all dogs love me. And he saw me like counterconditioning Teague. I was like, I was stuffed dogging Teague. While we tried to have this conversation. Oh,
Chrissy 22:33
squirrel moment. So stuffed dog is a term that we use when we are doing desensitization and counter conditioning with a dog and I got this term from Jamie Flanagan, who's the owner of training wheels and who's an expert in dog aggression. We use stuff a dog, when we are trying to change an emotional response when the dog sees a trigger. So say for instance, your dog is fearful of humans. And so we what we want to do is, instead of a dog when they see a human reacting, like barking, lunging or biting, we want the dog to say, hey, oh, you know that humans not so bad. So the order of events is dog sees the trigger, treats happen. Trigger goes away, treat stop. And this is done from a distance that dog is comfortable with and then we gradually progress with this. Oh,
Rebecca 23:22
this guy initiated initiated, he was like, see? Yep, there it is, you know, you're treating just at the moment that he's gonna do something bad. So you're reinforcing the bad and I was like, I was like, I have a trainer. Like we know what we're doing and like, haven't talked to that guy ever since. But I was so upset, you know, other situations where generally men would like try to say something to me about how all talks love them, or they would try to help and I'd be like, we don't need your help. What helped in all of those moments is I would usually I would reach out to my loved ones like my mom or my boyfriend eventually or you be like this just happened you know, I feel so alone. Like please tell me I'm not crazy. please validate that this other person was being crazy and at least not understanding the situation and and those moments really helped. But honestly, Christy would ultimately helped us. You starting that private, the private Facebook group we have because it was shortly after you started it. I had another another situation where it was winter and there was a layer of ice on the ground. And this is the times in winter always my hardest times because it restricts our escape routes. But we were up by the lake and this puppy came running at us off leash and Teague was barking and I was trying to say to the human can you please put your dog on a leash? And the human starts yelling at me. It's your problem. You can go the other way. You shouldn't have your dog out here. My dog is just fine. And I was like flabbergasted. Ah, this guy was clearly in the wrong by not having his dog on a leash illegally. Yeah, yeah. And I ultimately called Animal Control and now have them on speed dial. But anyways, I came back, I think I texted you like, I just had this experience, can I put it in the Facebook group? And you're like, Sure. And I did. And some people just that community validation of geez, like that person was in the wrong and animal control validated that they were in the wrong, just having that community, you know, finding this real niche community of people who get it has really gone a long way for me, in working through that plus the work with Jana, the therapists that I mentioned. And she, she gave me a few tactics to try with him that really helped. But I would say the community, because you know, people who love you will always be in your camp and say like, Oh, of course, the other guy was crazy. But like other dog owners who really get it and can sympathize. I've honestly been surprised how how much that has helped me just sort of relax into like, I'm not crazy. And I'm doing okay,
Chrissy 26:08
yeah, community is so undervalued. And yeah, in general, I feel like we've gone toward this lack of community, you know, everybody's kind of doing their own thing. And I feel like it's almost so important for us to get back to community. Yeah. And had just have support systems. Yeah. Yeah, those are two huge things that I think a lot of people deal with is other people judging or giving advice, when you know what you're doing, you have a plan, you know, you're working with people who, you know, have education in this and certifications and background, you know, and you know, what, it may look like a certain way, but underneath, you know, science underneath and behind what you're doing. And then, you know, the off leash dogs that, yeah, legally, they need to be on leash. And so that's just it's flabbergasting. The people think they can have their dogs off leash all the time.
Rebecca 27:07
Okay, well, I was gonna offer I have a happy story of a neighbor stopping me on a walk. Yeah. So you know, I'm, as I said, I'm generally out with Teague twice a day, most days of the week, not every day. But most so like, if we have multiple routes, that one standard circuit that is just a loop. And, like, I mean, I know all the neighbors by face and and this experience made me realize like they they know me from afar, and I, in my head, I refer to them as my friends from afar. At least at least these people recognize that we need space and that we're doing work here. Again, I was coming down the sidewalk with Teague. And we had already passed this person's house and she came out. So she said, Hey, excuse me, excuse me. And I'm like, inside. I'm like, God, she's here we go. So I pulled him to the side. And I had him sit and I started treating him. And she just asked me like, what's the deal with your talk? And I'm like, What do you mean, he's reactive? And she's like, okay, and maybe she asked another question or two, she tried to come a step closer, Teague barked, and she was like, okay. But then she said, she was like, you know, I just see you out here all the time with him. And I can see all the work you're doing with him. And she's doing her hands like prayer, gratitude hands. And she's just like, thanking me for all the work I'm doing with him and saying, like, that means so much and like, we need more people in the world that will do this. And I just, it was really surprising. And in a lovely way, you know, I don't know this neighbor. But obviously, she's seen me 5 million times. And for her to stop, that was really impactful. Because obviously, I know, I'm helping him but I don't I don't ever particularly think about I'm putting good viral effect, good karma or something out in the world, or Yeah, the ripple effect. And it was just really nice. The Hurt good people and people who at least understand how hard you're working, even if they don't know all the science, you know, that you were just saying so
Chrissy 29:08
and so then you were crying because it was? Yeah,
Rebecca 29:11
yeah, I was I really was. Okay.
Chrissy 29:15
So as you have developed your own self confidence and emotional responses, you know, in working with Teague, what would you say that it's helped the most I know, we talked about, you know, community and support, I guess, maybe talk about in regard to would you say you're having the skills to work with Teague, like knowing skills and having a plan? I
Rebecca 29:36
would say the skills and the plan for sure. This is I feel like this is a boring answer. But I would I would also just say doing it 5 million times, and you're in 5 million situations, and then you survive 5 million situations and you know that you can get out of it. Maybe this is a little different. I have gradually over the years allowed myself to have boundaries, more boundaries than I did in the beginning, you know, he's never cold, like he's only cold when it's zero degrees, and there's snow on the ground. So we would go out and like single degree temps and like super hot temps, and like rain and snow and sleet and all of the above, and we would walk when I was exhausted. And always for him, one of the things that therapists helped me work through is like giving myself permission to not be 100% Perfect 100% of the time. So I have gradually, like, narrowed my temperature windows, like if it's if it's below 17 I don't know why 17. But like, we don't go we and and we have developed other skills or games or whatever to entertain him. And like same if it's super hot, and I don't feel like and like super sunny, we don't go and we like play outside and and often on Friday evenings, we don't go like we just go straight to dinner, which he is delighted by. And sort of realizing that I could give myself that permission to I guess not overextend myself, we stay home and we play and we have like joyful times, which helps refill my cup in a way that I didn't realize I needed in the first however many years, probably five years. So probably some of that stuff in conjunction with all like the skills and the practice. Oh, and also, like some of the scary experiences I've had, like I said, we're in ice or after bad snowstorms, like so I made a like deal with myself. This past winter, when it's icy or snowy. We're not going over there. Like we'll find a different way to go. Because I'm just I've had too many close calls over there. That is just not worth it.
Chrissy 31:46
Do you notice a difference in Teague when you are feeling kind of more confident and relaxed?
Rebecca 31:52
Oh, for sure. Really, really, what I noticed is, I guess both ends of the spectrum. What I first noticed way back when around the divorce time when things were like really contentious in the negotiations with my ex husband and stuff as we were walking one morning, and he was just being a little turd. He was like reacting to everything. Like, he was super hyper vigilant. And I had no patience. And I was just like walking along being annoyed with him. Like, what is wrong with you? Like, I know you have these skills. I know you're better than this. And then I finally realized like, Oh, I'm the one that's cranky here. Like, I'm the one walking around with this, like black cloud over my head because of all the divorce stuff. And I was like, Oh, okay. So I for sure notice, he totally feeds off any negative energy I have and probably feels like he needs to be more vigilant of threats. But yeah, Sam, if if I'm calm, and just self assured that we're gonna get through whatever the situation is, and I can keep my energy there and my voice there, he does better, you just, and that again, for me that has come through 5 million interactions of seeing him react to lots of different things and giving him grace, you also taught me about trigger stacking. That was a big learning for me, oh,
Chrissy 33:11
squirrel moment. So trigger stacking is the point at which your dog is just gone over a threshold and can't handle another trigger. So for example, say your dog sees one dog and you're doing great, and then they see another dog and then they're doing great. And then the third dog, your dog just explodes and can't take it anymore. And so that's an example of trigger stacking when there's just too many triggers. And then the last one your dogs had enough, it's the same idea is, you know, the beginning of the day, you know, you're pretty refreshed and you're feeling good. And you're dealing with stressors throughout the day. And by the end of the day, you're just done and you can't take it anymore, and you've had enough and then you just might blow up at your kids or your husband. And so that's an example of human trigger stacking. Oh,
Speaker 1 33:58
giving him grace when he's like, killed it on the first five triggers. And then he explodes on the sixth. Like, I don't get upset. I'm like, Yeah, I'm trigger stack too bud,
Chrissy 34:07
because you know, you're like, oh, yeah, get it? Yeah, like that was too hard. I'm sorry.
Rebecca 34:12
Nope. Yep. I feel Yeah, I'm ready to go home too.
Chrissy 34:17
Yeah, it's interesting. You know, and I don't there's, I don't think there's any research done on this. But I have noticed with many of my clients that are living in contentious situations, when there's a lot of tension between the husband and the wife, or just what's going on with the family, the dog really struggles. And then I've seen when the family tension has settled, the dog really settles. I mean, there's no research that I know of, but I that is a huge environmental, you know, stimuli trigger. Yeah. So that's definitely something for people to think about. Yeah. So is there anything else that you want to add that I haven't asked or that you think that might be important? If Two
Rebecca 35:00
things. And I might have said these before. One is one thing you taught me in the very beginning, which when we first started working together was to use his recovery time as a measure of success. Not so much did he? Or did he not react? But like, okay, he's gonna react, we know he's gonna react, how quickly did he recover? And that really helped me shift my mindset. You know, in those early days, that was really helpful, because then it made me feel like I was succeeding, you know, I could succeed along with him. And the other thing this is my mantra adopted during those early days with him is to set the bar low enough for success. Teague loves to succeed, and I love to help him six like I feel better if he's succeeding, because then I feel like So seek succeed in early days I really referring to when it was first just me and him alone, asking him to do purely what he can do and maybe like 1% More, and maybe not. And that goes for me too. And that really helped me early on. Yeah,
Chrissy 36:00
cuz if he's succeeding, it's very validating and reinforcing for you. Yes, that's huge. And then you're gonna keep going? Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Rebecca. Okay, and I will. Yeah, I'll see you probably tomorrow. Yeah,
Rebecca 36:17
yeah. Yep, I'll be here. Oh,
Chrissy 36:20
thank you so much for listening to Teague and Rebecca's story. Dogs truly are special beings and can change lives. If we're open to what they have to teach us. This not only impacts you and your dog but can also make a positive impact on the world. If you're finding value. In this podcast. The best way to support us is by leaving a review up to five stars and sharing it with your family, friends and fellow dog lovers around the world. Lastly, I'd love to connect with you. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at the nature of animals and visit my website at www.theanimalnature.com Until next time, be curious, show compassion and have courage.
