Your Environment is in the Driver's Seat of Your Life

This might feel a little more "woo-woo" than the normal blogs I write, but I swear it has a science connection to it. I was reading a book this morning about how to create a "money mindset" that I found multiple connections to dog training in (oh but of course). It was talking about the impact your environment has on your perceptions, beliefs, actions, and behavior. For example, if you are hanging around people that complain a lot or that peer pressure you into drinking way too much on the weekends, you almost set yourself up to complain more and drink way too much on the weekends as well. If our life feels a certain way, we start to act in ways that reflect that same frequency. 

Well, same is true for your dog. So many times I coach clients on how to re-arrange or change their environment to change their dog's behavior and set them up for success instead of failure. I see a lot of dogs that have been transported off the streets of other countries, and then get adopted into busy high-rise apartments in the middle of San Diego. Many of these dogs thrived on the streets, learning to keep their distance from perceived threats and having the ability to move about their environment however they see fit with no leash restrictions or physical boundaries. Yet, once adopted they tend to struggle with the over-stimulation of a city and the inability to move their bodies as they would want to in order to feel safe. Lots of these dogs then display leash reactive behaviors, which were non-existent when this dog was living in a different environment.  

Now, this doesn't mean that we have to move in order to support our dogs that are struggling. But it does mean that having an awareness of behavior being contingent upon the environment your dog is in will give you a leg up in your ability to problem solve effectively. Sometimes making changes over what is in your dog's environment - like taking the stairs instead of an elevator, or putting up window film to prevent a dog from barking at passerby's all day, can get the unwanted behavior to stop without directly trying to apply a reward or a consequence to it. 

You can also apply this concept to your own behaviors. Do you have any habits that you would like to change? For me, I'm trying to set myself up for success to not feel guilty or feel anxious by tidying up a little bit in each room I go in. I noticed that seeing a mess in my apartment made me then feel guilty and overwhelmed that I have another thing on my "to-do" list. Taking a minute or two to clean things up as I am already in a room, helps me feel  less anxious and more productive.