Our dogs are brilliant!

It struck me the other day, that I, and perhaps some of you, tend to focus on what our dogs are not doing that we want them to, or are doing that we would rather they didn't!

I stress myself about Jake's stress levels! I panic that he will become stressed in training class, and (embarrass me!) by barking. I spend hours thinking about how I can either get him to chill out at traffic, or get enough money together so he never needs to see another car! Every time he reacts to a car, I think I am a complete failure

However...the other day we walked back through the village past some "interesting" dogs!

First cottage had two dogs flying out of their garden and over the road to sniff all round ours. Simon whinged a bit, and Jake had a sniff at them and got bored. (I.m not sure what breed they were, medium sized, long white fur).

100 yards up the road, one of the new big posh houses has a staffie, that runs at the gate, bearing it's teeth. Jake always has a go back (and on reflection, I don't blame him) Simon whinges at it...

Coming up the hill to our street, there was a lovely looking BC on the other side of the lane, outside a house with its owner. It went mad when it saw ours, up on back legs, barking and growling, its owner was nearly pulled over. Jake ignored it. Simon whinged...

So I got in and thought "my dogs are better than all the dogs we met today!"

They have their "problem areas", but they are both loving loyal, reasonably well trained good dogs. I am doing my best in the areas they are not good, but they are not DA, they are not people aggressive (Simon was, due to bad experiences before he was rescued), they don't shoot out of our garden and molest passers by. Jake is coming on great, his recall is nearing perfect, he adores training and learns really quickly. They sit next to each other to eat their meals. Simon ignores the cat, and Jake plays with it

They are both super dogs, and I just wanted to say, I appreciate them for what they are. Sometimes the negative stuff takes over

I totally agree - should always look at the positives and am glad you are so proud of your two, justly so

I think this is so true in a lot of things. When I first started gardening all I could see was the weeds so didnt get time to enjoy the garden, now I ignore them when I want to sit and relax. Same with the dogs I try and see thier good points now and although I work on thier bad points I do try to chill, they do bark a bit too much, but hey they are dogs so........................ The boys jump up at people when the arrive at the farm but most people know not to ware anything too nice when they visit.
It wouldnt be good if everything was perfect, how boreing would that be!!!!!

I don't know if dogs have negative emotions(like we do) but trying to understand as much as possible to do the best for them as much as we can is what matters(?) No one( dog, bird nor beast or anything) is perfect but sounds like you and your dogs are doing very well and it's always good to see and experience positive things for all.
eta Yes they are brilliant

I know what you mean, I always worry about Harry turning deaf with his recall when he gets the smell of something and won't come back to us to go home,and Cooper and his love of other dogs,so much so he feels the need to run across fields to get to them
But today we had a lovely time out with a friend and her dog, all 3 boys were really well behaved, my boys came back every time I blew my whistle, they both sat when asked and Cooper did a down easily when asked. Cooper even went in the stream for a play and Harry jumped in the car as soon as I opened the door.
I was so proud of them!

I agree, sometimes we do need to sit back and take a reality check. Your doggies sound fab I spend far too much time stressing over Cain's "bad" behaviour. Recently I sat back and thought about how he was when we got him and year ago and realised how far he has come. Thought of all the bad behaviours that he used to do, which he no longer does any more. And realised that actually, most of the time, he's a pretty damn good dog. And I'm frequently seeing other dogs out and about who are worse than him. We could all definately benefit from sitting back and focusing on the positives sometimes Lovely post OP

Your dogs sound very well-behaved and a credit to you.

I wsa thinking how nice my dogs were in the vets yesterday as the other dogs in there-well let's just say I thought I was in the "Slimming World" class for canines!

I have clicker trained mine to ignore other dogs barking at them when we walk past certain houses and now when we walk past the house with the 3 yappy little monsters barking at the window at them Parker and Cherry just look at me, sit, and wait for their treats!