Yesterday was a challenge. Witnessing the difficulty in controlling habitual reactions. I feel I did well… but only relatively. In the grand scheme of things I know I can do much better.

With yesterday’s events still in my mind, I entered a very passive open state of mind. In my mind, I recreated the events from last night but imagining a different reaction. It was difficult to find myself reacting differently and I knew I needed some sort of outside inspiration. Lucky for me, I’m in the presence of the most non-judgemental beings one could hope to be surrounded by…   animals! More specifically, a 6 year old pit bull name Zoe.

Zoe likes to jump up on me when I walk into the room, sometimes, though I’ve finally taught her not to jump up on me. However, now I would like to teach her to jump up, but only when I ask. I told her “Up!” and patted my hips. She was, of course, confused. I gently seized her front legs and lifted her up. She would stay there for a moment, noticeably unsure of herself before slowly lower herself down. I did this three times in a row.

On the forth time I patted my hips and she hesitated for a few seconds, so I leaned down to pull her up, as I did the previous three times… but then she suddenly popped up and slammed the back of her head into my bottom lip.

I didn’t get angry, though I felt it inside. It didn’t take much effort to question that reaction within myself (before reacting) and found that it was a dream that I didn’t wish to create. I stood up slowly and looked down at her with a smile on my pained face. She was noticeably uncomfortable. I then relaxed more, smiled again and said, “Up!“. Without hesitation, she jumped up, putting her front paws on my hips with that big ol pit-bull smile on her face, waiting to accept the reward.

Success.
Lesson learned.
Brain remapped.

…

What started out as me trying to teach, ended up with me being the student. Thanks Zoe.

And now to nurse this bruised and bloody bottom lip.