A new part of our training routine: doing nothing

Sometimes the best thing to do when faced with what seems like an unsolvable task is nothing. No, seriously!

For months now I've been working with Langley and always he's been "Crazy Train" Langley, or "Wildman" or an "issues dog" and even at times a "last chance" dog. I want to help him, and I know I've helped him a lot but we have so much more ground to cover and my brain is constantly picking at the problems and trying to untangle everything so I can understand him and what makes him tick.  Today I hit that point where in Dr. Seuss' words I had puzzled until my puzzler was sore. 

I uncrated him for yet another of our endless rounds of work and play-work, and potty training work and impulse control work that we do each day.  He walked over, stretched out on the ground, rolled over on his back and cocked his head to the side to look up at me, ears flopping and tongue hanging out, and he made me laugh out loud. This dog is king of the goofy looks. And then I decided, "screw it". We were both tired of the same old song and dance, and I decided we both needed to just chill out and have some time to veg without focusing on what needed to be fixed.


Langley's trademark goofball pose

Langley has always been an avid TV watcher.  Since he is so alert visually, it really catches his attention and he'll sit quietly on the couch and watch for awhile and then relax and fall asleep.  I don't watch much TV but needed to not think for awhile so we stretched out on the couch, turned on a rerun of Green Wing and prepared to laugh.  Langley stretched out in front of me on the couch and soon was asleep on his back making cute little snoring noises, all four  of his long legs straight up in the air under the blanket.  We laid like that for 2 hours, him snoring and me laughing and petting him and just appreciating that joy of doing nothing and thinking about nothing with a warm, sweet dog stretched out beside you. 

So this experience hasn't solved the puzzle of what makes Langley tick and we are back at our training games tonight, but it did remind me that sometime when training a dog who needs a lot of help, I need to change my focus and just appreciate them and be with them rather than seeing them as a puzzle to solve.