# Ep 57 Beyond Resolutions, The Secret to Achieving Your 2024 Dog Goals & The Nibbler

An episode of [Help! My Dog: The Podcast. Dog Behaviour & Training Strategies that Work!](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1721245241), 1 Jan 2025, 16 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2287608/episodes/16213484-ep-57-beyond-resolutions-the-secret-to-achieving-your-2024-dog-goals-the-nibbler.mp3

Happy New Year, dog lovers! In this episode, we’re talking about something more powerful than New Year’s resolutions: setting a vision and goals for your life – and your dog’s life – that inspire real progress. We dive into why having a clear vision of what you want to achieve with your dog is essential for making the most of the new year and each new day ahead. Whether you’re working on training, behaviour or building a key skill, this episode will help you map out a plan that’s as inspiring as it is practical. Tune in to hear how you can take control of your journey with your dog in 2025! ................ Whether your dog is unpredictable with other dogs or predictably bad… Whether it looks like freezing, barking, lunging or running away… Whether you are just starting out on your dog-owning journey or your dog has been labelled as having a “behaviour problem”… … this episode is for you and is going to give you huge insights! Want to join the Help! My Dog Online HUB? Here's the link: www.helpmydog.com/hub Dr Tom is a world-renowned veterinarian, behaviourist and dog trainer and director of the Behavet behaviour clinic (rated Excellent on Trustpilot), which sees over 400 pet behaviour consultations each and every month no matter where you are in the world. In 2023, he started Help! My Dog, an online dog behaviour learning platform to help even more owners all over the world and show that dog behaviour transformation is not only possible but it's FUN, with the right know-how! Make sure to subscribe/follow the podcast for the free weekly episodes! Useful Links: Follow Help! My Dog on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/helpmydogofficial/ Schedule a Consultation with Behavet: https://www.beha.vet/ Follow Behavet on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/behavet

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: However, one day, rushing before work, I put one of my black bras onto my- Oh! Before we dive in, a warning! The content of this podcast may not be appropriate for some young listeners.
[0:14] SPEAKER_00: This is real life, and that means that sometimes it can be a little bit graphic.
[0:18] SPEAKER_00: So listen on at your own peril.
[0:21] SPEAKER_00: As a veterinarian, dog behaviourist, best-selling author, and trainer, over the past decade I've had an obsession with transforming the behaviour of dogs, understanding their brains and creating practical strategies that you can implement easily at home.
[0:36] SPEAKER_00: I know all too well when the dream you imagined when you first got your dog is far from your daily reality.
[0:42] SPEAKER_00: In fact, out of the blue, a few months ago, my little dog Gorse was bitten by a dog 20 times her size.
[0:49] SPEAKER_00: And suddenly our life of stress-free walks, a calm and cuddly household, and being teammates was replaced with reactivity, anxiety, and worrying about what's around the next corner.
[1:00] SPEAKER_00: I'm Dr.
[1:01] SPEAKER_00: Tom.
[1:01] SPEAKER_00: This is the Help My Dog podcast, and this is me documenting that journey of transformation, sharing my knowledge and experience with you and having a few laughs along the way.
[1:12] SPEAKER_00: Happy New Year, HMD family! It's 2025! Crazy and um and also really exciting.
[1:19] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I am a big fan of saying that we can, you know, make today day one every day of the year, um, and we don't have to wait to start our goals until the new year.
[1:32] SPEAKER_00: But when it is the new year as well, it's like, well, now it's doubly important, yeah, because now we just need to do it, yeah.
[1:38] SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I thought we'd dedicate this episode to the next 12 months of dog ownership, but also what uh also life, right?
[1:47] SPEAKER_00: Because everything that I'm gonna talk about really relates to dog owning, relates relates to those of you that would like to potentially become dog professionals, yeah.
[1:56] SPEAKER_00: You've dreamt of becoming a trainer or behaviorist, and and also those of you that actually you have other things other than dogs um going on, which is all of us, right?
[2:05] SPEAKER_00: So our entire lives.
[2:07] SPEAKER_00: Admittedly, my life is made up of like um 90% dog, 10% horse, and then we just like squeeze everything else around it.
[2:16] SPEAKER_00: But um, I get that maybe isn't the case for everyone.
[2:20] SPEAKER_00: So, so, so, so let's talk about this.
[2:23] SPEAKER_00: Why should we care?
[2:27] SPEAKER_00: Why should we care about having goals?
[2:29] SPEAKER_00: Why should we care about having a vision of what we want to achieve in the next 12 months?
[2:34] SPEAKER_00: Why should we care about having a vision of the future?
[2:38] SPEAKER_00: Well, because if we don't, the future's gonna happen anyway.
[2:41] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[2:43] SPEAKER_00: The days are gonna pass, the hours are gonna pass, the weeks are gonna pass, and we've got an opportunity of almost imagining the direction that we want them to go, or just saying, they can pass, let's let's just ride the wave, right?
[2:59] SPEAKER_00: Let's see where the course of the river takes us.
[3:03] SPEAKER_00: Um, and really that is a choice, yeah.
[3:05] SPEAKER_00: There are things that happen outside of our control, absolutely, um, in life, but equally the overarching vision of life and dog ownership is can be decided by us, yeah.
[3:18] SPEAKER_00: And then all of those little events that happen that may be a little bit out of our control, they sit within that vision.
[3:24] SPEAKER_00: And that vision guides how we respond to those things.
[3:28] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[3:28] SPEAKER_00: So even our responses to things out of our control become easier when we've got a clear direction of where we want to go.
[3:34] SPEAKER_00: That's the first reason.
[3:36] SPEAKER_00: Second reason is the days are gonna pass anyway.
[3:39] SPEAKER_00: And one thing that I always say, which is a little bit scary, but it's sometimes a bit of a wake-up call, is with any skill, you're either getting better or you're getting worse.
[3:47] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, whether that be your skills, whether that be your dog's skills of disengagement or calmness or optimism, confidence, flexibility, right?
[3:57] SPEAKER_00: All the things that we talk about on this podcast, we're either getting better or we're getting worse.
[4:01] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[4:01] SPEAKER_00: Another way that I say that is no progression is regression, right?
[4:07] SPEAKER_00: Um and so and the interesting thing is if we multiply it, bearing in mind we've got like 365 days ahead of us.
[4:15] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[4:15] SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know if it's a leap here.
[4:17] SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't know.
[4:18] SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
[4:18] SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
[4:19] SPEAKER_00: Um, we'll find out.
[4:20] SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, we've got a choice of we can get 1% better every day or 1% worse every day.
[4:26] SPEAKER_00: And that's minimal effort, right?
[4:29] SPEAKER_00: Is you everybody can get 1% better or worse at something every day.
[4:33] SPEAKER_00: Your dog can get 1% better or worse at any skill every day, right?
[4:39] SPEAKER_00: Um, and the thing is, 1% sounds so achievable on a daily basis.
[4:43] SPEAKER_00: It is, yeah.
[4:44] SPEAKER_00: But then you multiply that out over the year, and what happens is it's exponential because being 1% better than yesterday is one thing, but tomorrow we're 1% better than today.
[4:57] SPEAKER_00: And today was better than yesterday.
[5:00] SPEAKER_00: So you have this exponential, like cumulative effect, right?
[5:05] SPEAKER_00: And that that whole uh that whole thing that we probably learnt in school called compounding.
[5:11] SPEAKER_00: And so um when we think about that over 365 days, well, if you just if you just minimal aim to get 1% better every day by the in a particular skill, let's say your dog's ability to disengage from distractions or things or whatever else, um that you you kind of pan that out over 365 days.
[5:33] SPEAKER_00: By the end of the 365 days, they are 37 times better at that skill.
[5:39] SPEAKER_00: 37 times better.
[5:41] SPEAKER_00: And this applies to any skill that you might have.
[5:44] SPEAKER_00: You might have a goal of becoming 1% more knowledgeable about dog behavior over the next 365 days, yeah?
[5:52] SPEAKER_00: Um, and imagine being 37 times more knowledgeable than you are right now in something.
[5:59] SPEAKER_00: That'd be huge, yeah?
[6:01] SPEAKER_00: Um hey guys, are your walks as enjoyable as they could be right now?
[6:05] SPEAKER_00: Is your dog looking at you lovingly, walking at your side, recalling perfectly, not reacting to things in the environment, and you're able to enjoy the scenery.
[6:14] SPEAKER_00: If that's not you, how do you like me to take the wheel and make it happen, right?
[6:18] SPEAKER_00: I've got a 10-day plan.
[6:19] SPEAKER_00: It's a video step by step.
[6:21] SPEAKER_00: You watch the video each day, you implement the learning, super simple, super fun, and it will move you forward from where you are right now to those dream walks that you imagined when you first got your dog.
[6:33] SPEAKER_00: All you need to do is head to this link.
[6:36] SPEAKER_00: And if you use this link, you're gonna get 60% off and some extra gifts for being a podcast listener.
[6:43] SPEAKER_00: All you've got to do is head to go.helpmydog.com forward slash stressful walks.
[6:51] SPEAKER_00: That's go.helpmydog.com forward slash stressful walks.
[6:57] SPEAKER_00: In the 10-day plan, you're gonna learn all the skills you need to teach your dog to want to engage with you, to want to disengage from distractions, and to be cool, calm, and collected about anything that might come your way on that walk.
[7:10] SPEAKER_00: It'll get you from where you are right now to that dream that you imagined when you first got your dog.
[7:16] SPEAKER_00: Imagine being 37 times more knowledgeable than you are right now in something.
[7:22] SPEAKER_00: That'd be huge, yeah?
[7:24] SPEAKER_00: And that's if we decide what the vision looks like right now.
[7:28] SPEAKER_00: Well, what direction do we want to go?
[7:30] SPEAKER_00: If we leave that to the, you know, the chaos of life, right?
[7:36] SPEAKER_00: Then we won't get 1% better in the things that we want to get better at.
[7:40] SPEAKER_00: We'll get 1% worse.
[7:41] SPEAKER_00: You know what getting 1% worse looks like over every day over 365 days?
[7:48] SPEAKER_00: By the end of the 365 days, that skill is basically at zero.
[7:52] SPEAKER_00: Like you never had that skill in the first place, right?
[7:56] SPEAKER_00: That scary effect of compounding.
[7:58] SPEAKER_00: So that idea of being a little bit rusty, yeah, you're a little bit rusty a couple of weeks in or a couple of months in, but actually by the by the end of the year, it's not a little bit rusty, it will feel like starting from scratch, right?
[8:13] SPEAKER_00: And so this is where I'm saying let's take control of what our goals are, what our vision is.
[8:19] SPEAKER_00: And I'm a very visual person, I don't know you guys might not be, but any um exercise, you know, like that whole idea of smart goals, specific, measurable, it's horrible, right?
[8:33] SPEAKER_00: Does not fit with my brain, it never has.
[8:36] SPEAKER_00: What I like to do is imagine.
[8:38] SPEAKER_00: Imagine what do I want life to look like, yeah?
[8:41] SPEAKER_00: What do I want life to look like with my dogs?
[8:44] SPEAKER_00: What do I want my dogs' lives to look like?
[8:46] SPEAKER_00: What do I want my personal life to look like?
[8:48] SPEAKER_00: What do I want my um my horse life to look like, right?
[8:52] SPEAKER_00: Whatever your buckets are in your life, what do you want them to look like?
[8:56] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[8:57] SPEAKER_00: Imagine them, visualize them, describe on paper, yeah?
[9:02] SPEAKER_00: And imagine that nothing's off the table.
[9:04] SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to think this vision is a one-year vision.
[9:07] SPEAKER_00: This is where I want to be in one year's time and it's going to be specific and measurable and achievable and whatever else.
[9:14] SPEAKER_00: Uh no, this is this is pretend time is not a factor.
[9:20] SPEAKER_00: Pretend that you know this is 10 years down the line or 20 years down the line.
[9:26] SPEAKER_00: I don't just time is not a factor in this.
[9:29] SPEAKER_00: What is the dream?
[9:31] SPEAKER_00: If if you didn't have to worry about resources, yeah, we were thinking 100% resourcefulness, we were thinking no time limit or time dependence.
[9:39] SPEAKER_00: What do you want life to look like?
[9:41] SPEAKER_00: That is then your guiding star that every day you wake up and you think, how can I be at least 1% better at the things that are part of that picture?
[9:50] SPEAKER_00: Um, and this is what I love about this, is why I don't like smart goals.
[9:54] SPEAKER_00: I've been very outspoken about why I don't like smart goals.
[9:57] SPEAKER_00: Um, because what I do is exactly the process that I'm going through here.
[10:02] SPEAKER_00: I have this big vision, big, big, big vision, nothing off the table vision.
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: And then I have this understanding that you're either 1% better or 1% worse every day.
[10:13] SPEAKER_00: Actually, you could be 10% better every day or 3% better every day, and then those numbers skyrocket, right?
[10:19] SPEAKER_00: Um but um what I then do each day is I say, okay, what needs to happen today?
[10:27] SPEAKER_00: What what needs to happen today to be 1% better?
[10:31] SPEAKER_00: Right?
[10:32] SPEAKER_00: What decisions need to be made today to be 1% better?
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: What needs to happen today that is going to ensure that I'm taking a step towards that vision and not a step in a different direction?
[10:42] SPEAKER_00: It might be one thing, it might be two things, it might be three things.
[10:45] SPEAKER_00: It doesn't, you know, it doesn't matter.
[10:47] SPEAKER_00: That's where you can think about, that's where it becomes achievable and specific and measurable and whatever else.
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: You wake up every day and you say, right, what needs to happen today to be moving towards that?
[10:58] SPEAKER_00: And then you let compounding take care of the rest.
[11:00] SPEAKER_00: Because if you do that one thing every day, or two things, or three things every day, you know the maths on that.
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: You know the maths on 1% better over 365 days.
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: What about 300, 3,650 days?
[11:14] SPEAKER_00: What is that number?
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: It's huge, right?
[11:17] SPEAKER_00: Um, and so get rid of the smart goals and actually get excited about the future.
[11:23] SPEAKER_00: And often when when I'm lacking motivation and when I work with other people that are lacking motivation, it's because they've the the vision isn't juicy enough, the dream isn't juicy enough, the vision isn't big enough.
[11:37] SPEAKER_00: We've gone too far down the route of being told that you must be realistic, you must be specific, you must be measurable.
[11:43] SPEAKER_00: That doesn't like jazz you up, does it?
[11:47] SPEAKER_00: Like it sounds boring.
[11:49] SPEAKER_00: It sounds like, I don't know, school homework, yeah?
[11:53] SPEAKER_00: This is life.
[11:54] SPEAKER_00: This is not school homework.
[11:55] SPEAKER_00: If we're not motivated about life, then there's a problem with the vision.
[12:00] SPEAKER_00: Not with, you know, we we shouldn't be downregulating our dreams so that we can feel motivated.
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: We should be upregulating it, but saying, you know what, that vision, if it takes me one year, five years, ten years, thirty years, doesn't matter.
[12:14] SPEAKER_00: That's the guiding star of my life.
[12:15] SPEAKER_00: Anybody telling you that you should make the guiding star of your life more realistic and measurable and specific, yeah, that get them out of your life, right?
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: Because life has enough of trying to drive you in that direction.
[12:29] SPEAKER_00: So, guys, hopefully I've jazzed you up a little bit.
[12:32] SPEAKER_00: What I want you to do is grab a piece of paper and with nothing's off the table, no time limit.
[12:40] SPEAKER_00: Let's get a juicy dream on that piece of paper.
[12:43] SPEAKER_00: Um, and then all I want you to do is wake up every day and be like, well, what needs to happen today?
[12:49] SPEAKER_00: What could happen today?
[12:50] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that is in that direction, not letting life decide the direction, right?
[12:57] SPEAKER_00: Um, and then just let compounding take care of the rest because the rest is in hand and you don't need to worry about it.
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
[13:04] SPEAKER_00: Get rid of smart goals.
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: Now, um, I can't even say on the subject of smart goals with that.
[13:10] SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to transition to today's cringe story, so I'm just gonna say it's cringe time, cringe story of the week.
[13:21] SPEAKER_00: So, um, hi Tom and Madeline.
[13:23] SPEAKER_00: No, not so much a cringe story, but more a funny situation I found myself in with my dog.
[13:29] SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
[13:29] SPEAKER_00: I won't be cringing then.
[13:31] SPEAKER_00: When I first got my greyhound, Leia, she had a habit of pulling things out of the washing basket and running off with them, as puppies do.
[13:38] SPEAKER_00: I'd grab them off her and shoved them back in as fast as possible.
[13:42] SPEAKER_00: However, one day, rushing before work, I put one of my black bras on to find Oh! No, that isn't.
[13:48] SPEAKER_00: That isn't that is cringy because I have to say rude words.
[13:52] SPEAKER_00: Why are you doing this to me?
[13:54] SPEAKER_00: However, one day, rushing before work, I put one of my black bras on to find that the nipple area had been totally chewed off.
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: And to make things worse, all of my bras in rotation seemed to have had the same fate.
[14:08] SPEAKER_00: No idea why she had such a fascination with that particular area, but safe to say, I checked all of my drying much more thoroughly from that point on.
[14:17] SPEAKER_00: You know, this reminds me of an embarrassing story that I have, not of me personally, it was a behaviour consultation where the person, the lady had come for a behaviour consultation um because her dog would get very overexcited, had no dimmer switch whatsoever, and would jump up and like snap and bite and grab her clothes.
[14:38] SPEAKER_00: And the final straw was one day the dog bit her nipple and uh and and very much wounded, wounded her nipple.
[14:48] SPEAKER_00: She was clothed, by the way, just to clarify.
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: Um but um she had to like go to AE and it was like a big thing, and then she was like, right, enough is enough.
[14:56] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to book that behavior consultation.
[14:59] SPEAKER_00: But can you imagine me in that behavior consulting room and everything always came, every like answer always came back to the nipple in some way?
[15:07] SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I cannot keep a straight face here.
[15:09] SPEAKER_00: So, guys, um that was this episode of the Help My Dog podcast.
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: Go forth while you're energized, and let's get sp let's not get specific, let's get juicy about our visions, right?
[15:21] SPEAKER_00: And let compounding take care of the rest.
[15:23] SPEAKER_00: We will see you next time.

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