17th April 2025
Today Belle put herself in a restricted area which was a great opportunity to work with the Present Moment (PM) and Mindful Regard (MR) around her personal space.
As we know she has a large personal space, a boundary that she doesn’t want a human to cross. So we started with some PM & MR until she licked and chewed, accepting the feeling of me in her space. Then we worked a little with the boundary, working with MR, to see if we could make it a little smaller, maybe just one or two steps closer. Belle did really well. We are using “Well Dones”, and “Thank yous”, all the time.
The last section was asking her to follow me out of the restricted area. This was using her wanting to leave and adding in an ask of her to follow me, which meant walking towards me. Even though I was walking away and the gap never got smaller, in her mind she is still walking towards a human. And I never blocked her exit or asked her to come closer to me in order to leave. It is all about creating Trust.