Praise Your Dog – Fear, Insecurity and the Need for Social Acceptance:
This goes hand-in-hand with the text post I made earlier. Do not be afraid to train your dog.
This is important because I feel like a lot of us on here have that social anxiety. That inclination to avoid contact. I can personally tell you that even with all my knowledge and experience, I still have trouble when I take my dog to the dog park. Everyone just stands and stares, and makes sideways comments to each other. How can anyone get up and engage with their dog through that?! But just as this post says… who are they to judge? are they even qualified? It’s hard to overcome insecurities in public, but it’s the first step of many when you want your dog to care about what you’re saying. Strangers are not more important than your dog.