Patience and Kindness are your pet’s best friends!

Let’s dig into the definition and meanings of patience and kindness before we dive into some juicy discussion!

Patience: a)  the will or ability to wait or endure without complaint and b)  steadiness, endurance, or perseverance in the performance of a task. The deeper meaning is bearing, supporting; suffering, enduring, permitting; tolerant. 

When it comes to your animals, this means taking all the time they need to understand, to learn, to grow. It also means not becoming reactive when your animals may express undesirable behaviours.

Kindness: the quality of being gentle, caring, and helpful. The deeper meaning is courtesy, noble deeds. deliberately doing good to others.

Patience and kindness together are the most beautiful way possible to increase trust, respect, and love between you and your pets. The better you get at patience and kindness (and it takes practice, in my experience), the better your relationship with your pets will become. No matter how good it is already!

Here’s how you grow your patience and kindness!

First things first. You have to make a choice to express patience and kindness in your life, and with your animals. That requires taking a good hard look at yourself. Where is your patience and kindness lacking? maybe when you’ve had a bad day that capacity slips for you. Maybe certain things trigger you.

Be honest. Take an audit. Increase your awareness. And remember! You’ll need to express patience and kindness with YOU as you work away at this. Then, you’ll need to increase your capacity for patience and kindness as you live with your pets, as you interact with them, as you meet challenges together.

You are likely to fall down as you work to increase your awareness, and your capacity for patience and kindness – especially when things don;t go so well – when your animals have in not-so-good ways, or when you get triggered, or things blow up in life. Because they do.

Your intention is everything when it comes to making these kinds of changes, and when it comes to growing your capacity for expressing patience and kindness. Every little tiny improvement that you make makes a real, practical, beautiful difference in your pet’s life, and in your bond, your relationship with your pets.

I used to be impatient with my animals. I also used to use aversives. That’s what I was taught as a child, and as a young man. I learned it all too well. I’ve got a new puppy at the moment, and she is stretching my capacity for patience and kindness in the most beautiful way.

It’s like a muscle. The more you work it, the stronger it gets. It’s like playing a musical instrument. The more you practice, the better you play. It’s endlessly valuable in all facets of your life.

It’s remarkably simple. But not so easy to put into practice, because you will meet your hurts, your traumas, your triggers, your anger, your impatience – and embracing all of this while steadfastly committing to and practicing patience and kindness is often hard and uncomfortable.

Want more? Check out our most recent of this series of articles at this link.

And here’s where you can click through to watch this week’s video where I talk about these themes from a bit of a different angle.

If you want an online or in-person consultation with me, go to www.thehealingvet.com and book a free discovery call with me! We also offer a stack of awesome online training programs that empower you to find and heal your pet’s Silent Pain.

Pic of Fred trying to reach the tuna!