Today it’s raining at my house, which is normal for April in Utah. April showers—hopefully they bring flowers like they’re supposed to!
I love summer. I love not worrying about wearing shoes. I love leaving the house in shorts and no jacket without worrying about getting cold. I hate the rain and the snow and anything falling out of the sky. (Why do I live in Utah, you’re probably asking!) So the rain we’ve been getting recently has really dragged on me, but there is a bit of a silver lining.
For one, I see how green the grass is and how the sunflowers are starting to pop up. That’s what I love about spring: the rejuvenation and refreshing that goes on. Everything’s green! Utah is essentially a desert. It’s not like New Hampshire or Florida where there’s some green all year round. We get a brilliant green for a few weeks each year, and then it goes away unless we water the yards year-round. Come to Utah and you’ll see a bunch of dudes standing in front of their houses, judging each others’ lawns and recommending different kinds of fertilizer. And if it’s sunny in the springtime, of course, I love that too.
I’ve been in the dog training business long enough to where I’m seeing some of my early clients’ second or third dogs, or seeing clients I’ve already helped for the second time. This reminds me of the need for constant rejuvenation of our training. If you train your dog once and then let them go, your environment is essentially a desert. That green grass will die and get brown. You can almost always bring dead grass back, but it’s a lot easier to revive grass that’s only a little off-color. All you need to do then is add a little water. But if it’s dead, you might need to rip some grass out or fertilize it. Your approach will need to be more drastic.
Dog training is the same. If you let it go completely to pot, you might have to do some major maintenance. It’s a lot easier to just make sure you water your grass when it’s not raining. Make sure that your dog training is constantly rejuvenated by practice and reminders. Don’t just rely on those one-time floods. Cultivate those April showers instead!
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