Our World Is Disneyland To Our Dogs

Do you remember when you took your little brother/sister, your son/daughter, or your young cousin to Disneyland for the first time?

Imagine for a moment, the sheer amount of sensory overload that their brains must have been experiencing when they excitedly walked through the park turnstiles for the first time.

One moment, Belle from Beauty and the Beast casually walks by and smiles, as the arresting aroma of cotton candy drifts into their noses.

This moment is then quickly interrupted by the sudden and loud screams of children as they speed through a corner on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride, which leaves them visibly and excitedly SHOOK.

“What...is...this...place?”, they may have asked themselves, as Mickey Mouse suddenly appears and casually calls them over (“who, ME?) to, you know, hang.

These experiences may have felt utterly DELIGHTFUL to them, but there must have been a smattering of ANXIETY, FEAR, and TREPIDATION that they felt at the same time. 

I mean - characters from their favorite animated movies are....ALIVE, WALKING and...DANCING?!?! WTF?!?!

Your Perspective

Now think about it from your perspective. 

You’ve been here COUNTLESS numbers of times.  

You know that someone bearing an uncanny resemblance to Belle has been hired by the park to put on a ball gown and be cute, friendly, and approachable. 

You know that the cotton candy is probably extremely overpriced, and that, at its essence, it’s just a bunch of cute and “poofy” sugar.

You know that the screams from approaching children who are on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride can sound and feel quite intense, but it’s not a big deal to you, because you remember a few facts from your high school physics class.

And you know that Mickey Mouse’s head has been permanently affixed with a permagrin that you’re sure has been designed in a lab to extract the maximum amount of “OMG MICKEY!” from children.

In short, this place is extremely familiar to you, and it would take something quite extraordinary for you to experience a certain level of fear, surprise, astonishment, etc.

Stimulating Environments & Expectations

So, then, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that when you try to get the attention of your young adventurer, it’s a bit more difficult than you’re used to, if you’re able to at all.

It also shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that they may wander off excitedly, on occasion, toward someone or something else, instead of sticking right by you, or immediately coming back to you when called, if at all.

And it definitely shouldn’t come as a surprise to you if the route that you meticulously pre-planned to most optimally and efficiently experience Disneyland gets a tad disrupted, or outright disposed of.

Why Is That?

Don’t we just innately know that because they’re in a new, foreign and extremely stimulating environment, it would be completely unfair for us to expect them to act or respond to us in the EXACT SAME WAY that they would in our homes?

And because of that, don’t we know that getting and keeping their attention in this environment is going to take a bit more CREATIVITY, FOCUS and INGENUITY, and our inability to do so is probably more on us, than on them?

Our Dogs

But for some strange reason, we don’t treat our dogs in the same way.

For our dogs, particularly our pupz, our world is Disneyland to them.  It’s, simultaneously, an exciting, scary, exhilarating, strange and awesome place, but many of us expect, want and desire our dogs to act in a very controlled and consistent way.

So, I invite you to view our world from your dog’s perspective.  

In doing so, give them the same grace you would give to your little brother who, on occasion, completely loses their marbles in excitement at the sight of Dumbo, just like your dog might when going to a new dog park for the first time, for example, instead of perceiving your dog’s unwillingness or incapability of paying 100% attention to you as some gargantuan slight against your ultimate authority.

And remember, just like you know that getting your little brother’s attention at Disneyland will be significantly more difficult than normal, because you’re competing with a host of - let’s be honest…WAY MORE - fun and interesting things in the environment, remember that getting your dog’s attention in a new environment will require you to put a bit more energy into being more exciting and awesome than you may be normally.

Happy training!