Why Your Dog Mirrors You
5 cards · about a minute
They check you first
Before a dog decides whether the stranger at the gate is a problem, they look at your face. You are the reference the whole assessment is built on.
Tension runs down the lead
A tight hand is a message in itself, and relaxing your fingers removes half of what your dog was bracing for before you have said a word.
You set the baseline
A dog living beside an anxious person tends to run anxious too: the household’s ordinary mood becomes the dog’s resting state over months, not moments.
Slow yourself first
When a dog is spinning up, the intervention is your own breathing and your own pace. You cannot ask for a calm you are not currently demonstrating.
Greet the state you want
Whatever state you give attention to at the door is the state you are asking for tomorrow, so wait the thirty seconds and greet the calm dog.