Week Six: Sleep...not aways peaceful

the one book during the bedtime routine worked great with her dad for two nights in a row, but last night I tried it and gosh darn it but she KNEW it was "supposed" to be 3. *sigh* rocky bedtime, but still, 6 out of 7 were peaceful bedtimes, for the first time ever (except when she's exhausted). I'd call that success!

I'm having trouble articulating the 4 crucial c's with Fiora. So, I've just been letting them percolate in the back of my mind (and doing minimalistic coaching on how she uses the sink to "wash" dishes - maybe that's letting her know how Capable she is). With the nice result that I've been really practicing letting the dogs know how much they count (it's easy, the main channel for the communication is via eye contact, and it's special - I've never had such intimate eye contact with the dogs), and it's really deepened our relationship in ways I can't articulate, either. Plus I've been practicing "trusting" how capable they are on our walks. I can't tell that it's helped our walks have less pulling or anything (but that had already improved so much over the past few weeks), but it sure puts ME in a better place to relate to them!

It's kindof interesting how it's easier for me to practice absorbing these lessons during my work with the dogs. They do get a discrete period of time when all I do is focus on them (their nighttime walk and then training minutes). And they don't require me to articulate much at all.

So, no rush for now. I'm working on it.