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Many of the best athletes visualize their performances before they compete. When I was a competitive swimmer, I was trained to close my eyes and visualize an entire race, imagining a perfect start, every breath, stroke and turn, and finally a perfect finish.

Have you ever done something like this? Maybe you prepared for a meeting by rehearsing it in your mind, the things you wanted to say, the questions that might be asked. Maybe you visualized ahead of time how it would go when you met your boyfriend’s parents for the first time or had a job interview. I visualize how I want my dog to respond to my voice and hand signals and how his training will be nearly perfected after putting in the necessary time. Visualization is a valuable way to prepare for the future by planning how you want something to go.

But what about your life’s vision?

I am currently listening to the audio book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. I have written goals before, but have never sat down and really thought about my personal life mission, which goes beyond writing, imagining and accomplishing goals. Covey describes a personal mission statement as a way of keeping your vision and values before you, helping you to integrate those values into your everyday life. It is a way of “beginning with the end in mind.”

Think about it, all successful businesses and organizations have well thought out mission statements. For example the Fargo-Moorhead Humane Society’s mission statement, according to its web site says, “Our Mission is to care for, protect and place animals for adoption in life long homes, and to prevent cruelty to animals by educating our community in the proper and humane care of all animals.”           

Weaker, less organized groups don’t have a mission statement at all, or they just don’t take their mission statement seriously. Shouldn’t every person have a personal mission statement in order to be successful, balanced and fulfilled? And I’m not talking about a mission statement for your career or resume. I’m talking about a life’s mission statement, something that should include your career but not be centered around any one part of your life.

To me, this personal mission statement should help me accomplish my goals and dreams, focus on where I want to go and how I will interact with others. It should be a basis for my decisions and actions, but also something living, that I am able to modify as I change and grow throughout life.

It shouldn’t be that hard to recognize my own purpose (I believe purpose and mission are interchangeable), but writing my own mission statement seems like a very difficult task, something I have never forced myself to think about before. It will likely include my gift for helping animals, using writing to make a difference, traveling and exploring the world and spending quality time with friends and family. I am nowhere near the point of sharing my mission statement. That is my goal for this week, to take the time to realize my own purpose. I hope you do the same.

(Some of you may have noticed my Saturday posts are often loosely related or unrelated to dogs.)

(Image from cottagedaily.com)

Yesterday I wrote about the final day of my 30-day challenge to take my mutt to 30 new places. The main goal of this challenge was to get my dog to chill out when he visits new places. Basically I want Ace to act calm wherever I take him and to not freak out (he gets really anxious or excited) just because we’re at a new park or a friend’s house.

The challenge was difficult, but I plan on creating more challenges for Ace and I. Time was the biggest problem for me. I thought just walking him for 30 days was hard enough. It was even harder to take him to a new place 30 days in a row, let alone think of where to go. Plus, getting there and being there cut into our daily exercise time. A walk is more important than going somewhere new, and this challenge required me to organize my time in order to get a good walk in every day before going somewhere new. Let’s just say we did not get a long enough walk in some days. And although I took Ace somewhere new 30 days in a row, I didn’t blog about it 30 days in a row and got behind on the updates.

Over the last 30 days, I wanted to:

1. Take Ace to 30 new places.
This was fairly easy to accomplish. If I had more time it would’ve been easier. Some days we had no choice but to walk to a new neighborhood or even a new street because of time. Other days I was able to plan ahead and take Ace to a new grooming shop or dog park.

2. Decrease his anxiousness/excitement in the car.
OK, this is still a problem. It seemed to get better for awhile. Now it seems worse again. It depends on how much exercise Ace has had. Wearing the Gentle Leader in the car also makes him more calm. I plan to work on telling him  “No!” Instead of “quiet,” “down,” “bad dog,” etc.

3. Cure Ace of his whining issue when he wants something.
This problem hasn’t improved either. Ace cries after we get up because he wants to go for a walk. Sometimes he cries if he’s not in the room with me, etc. I’ll have to think of some ways to work on this issues, perhaps putting him in his kennel for a half-hour at a time while I’m home or making him stay on his dog bed while I’m in a different room.

4. Help Ace control his excitement in a new area or his favorite places.
This improved. The Gentle Leader or other training collars help, as do treats. Just going to new places and telling Ace to heel or sit improved how he listens to me. He still needs work, but he is getting better.

5. Practice random basic obedience in as many places as possible.
I want Ace to listen well no matter where we are. When I’m consistent with this, Ace improves. When I slack of, Ace doesn’t listen as well. It’s all up to me to practice with him every day in as many places as possible. The goal is still to get Ace to sit on the first command 95 percent of the time. He is not there yet.

6. Improve Ace’s response to the heel command.
His heeling has improved. Lately the choke collar, worn high on the neck has been working better than the pinch collar or the leader. Ace’s heeling has improved a lot since our first challenge. This second challenge helped some more. We still have a lot of work to do though. Perfect heeling will be a never-ending goal for Ace and I.

7. Work to perfect Ace’s heeling without a pinch collar or Gentle Leader.
This is still a challenge. Some days are better than others. There are so many factors, from where we are, who we are with, how much exercise he has had, etc.

8. Work on Ace’s off-leash heeling.
He has gotten better at this too. But again, he does better the more we practice. If we take a couple days or a week off from off-leash heeling, then we have to work harder to catch up again. Other factors affect this too like how tired he is and where we are. I need to practice more off-leash heeling randomly, so Ace doesn’t know whether I’m holding the leash or not.

9. Continue using treats for positive reinforcement.
I’ve been using more treats and this has helped Ace’s focus big time. I’ve been using jerky and that works great because they are soft, and I can tear them into tiny pieces. I don’t want to depend on treats, however.

Taking my mutt to a new place every day for 30 days was a good challenge. But in order to keep up the positive improvements, I will have to continue bringing him to new places and walking him every day. It is not necessary to take him to a new place every day, but once a week would be good. I encourage others to give it a try.

Click here to see all my 30-day challenge posts.

What can you do today or right now that will help improve your dog’s behavior or well-being? 

You could take her for a walk or practice obedience training for 10 minutes. You could take her to the park and play ball. You could tell yourself that today, you aren’t going to allow any pulling on the leash. You could tell your dog to stay on her bed while you eat dinner, to stop her begging. You could buy her a backpack so she has a job to do when she carries it. You could take the flea prevention medicine out of the cupboard and actually use it (that’s why you bought it). You could look up dog obedience classes in your area and sign her up. You could research dog daycares in your town. You could take her for a run. You could program her vet and the nearest animal ER into your phonelist. You could teach her to give a high-five.

It’s important to have long-term goals while living with and training a dog, but these goals can only be reached one step at a time. I remember when I first brought my mutt home and he didn’t know any commands, let alone his own name or how to walk on a leash. I remember thinking I had a lot of work ahead of me. But really, it only took little steps each day to get my mutt to where he is now. First he learned sit, then stay. He learned that he only got to go for a walk if he relaxed first and waited patiently. He learned there is a big world out there, and he is still learning how to behave in it.

Remember to set goals for yourself and your dog. Make them challenging for the long term, but make small, accessible goals for today. Your dog will thank you.

(Photo is of my mom and dad’s dog, Elsie, who of course is perfect!)