Quit while you're ahead



Short and sweet is a time old saying.  The whole idea around the saying is to keep it positive; not draw an action out making it become a negative.  I have a few sayings or quotes that I have implemented into my life over the years and one of those is "quit while you're ahead."  Just yesterday I heard myself saying it as we left an interaction with some other dogs.  I really don't know where in your life "quiting while you're ahead" would not be a good idea.

Elsa and I were at the park yesterday; we had the place to ourselves for a while which makes for some great fun.  But I also love when other dogs show up for some canine interactions.  Even though Elsa is now two years old I am still extremely cautious as to 'who' we interact with.  If there are too many negative interactions; even the most friendly of dogs can start to exhibit bad greeting displays.  So when I saw these two coming our way with their lowered ears and body with low tails wagging I was happy.   A Golden and a malti-poo type mix.

The woman shouted to me as she was very literally being dragged our way across the field.  "Yes," I called back at her "friendly?" question.  Being that we were in a very safe area of the park I immediately unhooked Elsa to freely greet these two.  The Golden got lower and lower as they greeted one another.  The little dog was a bit intimidated by Elsa which can initiate a snap or growl.  I really didn't want that to happen because Elsa has been snapped at too many times now by small dogs.  So I called her to me and the Golden and her continued their interaction.  Then the woman got one of Elsa's fabulous bubblicious greetings causing her to then ask about her breed, age and personality etc.  We chatted about Elsa for a bit and just as the little dog approached Elsa again we made our exit.  "Leash" I said and Elsa came and got hooked up.  We said our good byes and added another great greeting to her experiences.

Keeping the "quit while you're ahead," thought in your head at all times really helps to cut down on over stay moments.  Life is filled with day to day experiences; each one offering something to store away for later use.  When building an experience resume for your dog you want to obtain far more positive than negative.  Life will give you those negative moments no matter how hard you try not to have them.  But with enough positive ones, the negative have less impact.

So when you are out with your dog having a positive experience, quit short of it becoming a negative.  

No comments:

Post a Comment

Love to hear from you.