Busy doing nothing

🎵 We're busy doin' nothin'
Workin' the whole day through
Tryin' to find lots of things not to do
We're busy goin' nowhere
Isn't it just a crime
We'd like to be unhappy, but
We never do have the time 🎵
 
Very often when out with clients it might seem like we are doing nothing

But do you know what? It works.

What does it look like?
 

That really depends on what we are working on, but here’s some recent examples: 

✅ Hanging out around the skatepark with the cool kids working with a dog that can struggle with fast movements.

✅ Positioning ourselves at a suitable distance from a fenced off playground with a dog that can get excited around small children.

✅ Sitting on a bench watching the world go by at a beauty spot with a dog that struggles to settle.

✅ Watching dogs in the distance with a dog that barks at movement and noises.

✅ And with my own dog, sitting having a quiet coffee at a bench with a dog that is always on the go.

With each of these we are positioning ourselves in a way that the humans and the dogs feel safe and can be calm. That could be about distance, the intensity of the trigger in terms of loudness or movement, and safety such as having a fence and a lead.

One thing we need to be careful of is making the trigger even more important to the dog. The last thing I need is a dog becoming hypervigilant about children because they might get a bit of sausage. Quite the opposite. What we want to happen is for those children to merge into the environment, not pop out.
 

What are we doing?

 Well, quite a lot actually. Here's some tips and the sorts of things we do when chilling out with a dog:
 
💙 Reinforce all the good stuff that is happening … well done for sitting, sighing, laying down, looking at a dog and looking away.

💙 Allow the dog to take in the environment at an appropriate distance.

💙 By risk assessing where we go, we can take the pressure off us to do anything but be with our dog.

💙 And take the pressure off our dogs to do anything.

💙 Build up the skills doing nothing by adding duration and distraction. Think what you are aiming at such as sitting at a cafe, hanging out on the beach, going to the vets, chilling while you eat and so on.

💙 When I am there I can narrate what I see so that we can appreciate how well everyone is doing, give a little advice, improve timing, tell you when you are doing a good job. You can do the same by mentally narrating what you see.
 
In the picture on this blog we went to Botallack, knowing that it would not be too busy. We practiced moving towards, past and away from people. We saw a few dogs. We talked about how to set up a walk so that the dog is calm. Then we sat for quite a while, having a chat and allowing him to take in all that was going on around him.
 
And this is what we got … calm dog and lots learnt.
 
Later that day in my next appointment we did similar. In this case near a building site where we walked then sat down as things went on around us. We chatted, reinforced the good stuff, and then he laid down despite JCBs, workmen sweeping the road and lots more.
 
With both of these dogs it was amazing progress.
 

How can this help you?

If you have a dog that barks, lunges, gets excited or frustrated when out, it is very easy to rise to that same level of arousal in an attempt to calm them. Sometimes having me on your shoulder can help explain what is going on, have a second pair of eyes, help you understand when to keep going and when to take a break, and tell you what a good job you are doing.
 
If you see me sitting around with a client, watching the world go by, now you know what is going on.
 
 Busy doing nothing … and it works.