The Atomic Terrier Inside: A tale of learning healthy self-control from training my handsome pup
This is my dog, Mack. Mack the Jack. Mackadoo. Whacky Macky. (yeah, I’m that kind of dog dad)
Here’s something you should know about Mack. Beneath that sweet exterior lies a maniacal hyper-reactive monster. On rare occasions, he goes from a little sweety who loves belly rubs to an unrecognizable canine atomic predator beast.
Here’s a little something you should know about yourself. If you struggle with being distracted with mindless activity or eating binges, you likely have your own maniacal hyper-reactive monster inside of you too. I know I do… and it’s ok.
You are ok. You are beautiful. You are worth it, and you are worthy of love just the way you are. I am too.
Back to Mack! He is a relatively new addition to the family and he’s perfect!… ahem, nearly perfect. Mack has some reactivity and impulse control issues, just like his dad. His issues are mainly related to wanting to chase fast things. If we are walking on the sidewalk and a rooster sprints by, Mack will run to the end of his leash so hard that he goes airborne and then vocalize his energetic frustration with high pitched yips, lunging into his harness, and loud barking.
He’s learning to control his impulses from our consistent training with positive reinforcement and recognizing his triggers before he gets too excited. We reward the “good boy” behavior and try our best to avoid environments that are too much, too soon. That means he gets recognition or rewards for staying calm and present when we start to approach a rooster. It also means that if we see 5 dogs sprinting off-leash in the field ahead that we will probably turn around and find another path.
Instead of putting him into a situation I know he won’t be successful in, we change what’s in our control and build upon many small successes in a row. He’s learning so fast that I believe that one day he will be able to pass a menagerie of cats, dogs, chickens, mynah birds, and mongoose without going 100% atomic dog, but he’s not there yet and that’s ok.
My issues with reactivity and impulse control are far too plentiful to write about here, but for relatability's sake, let’s shine a light on my iPhone addiction and mindless eating. As a younger man, I had life-threatening addictions to drugs and engaged frequently in destructive behavior. Now, at this phase of my journey, I’m in a much better place. For the most part, my health and well-being are dialed in with my Big 4 list.
The Big 4 are: Sleep Schedule, Stress Mitigation, Movement Practice, & Nutrition Protocol. If we can check off that these four factors are being managed mindfully, we are well on our way to optimum health and well-being.
Still, I personally struggle with endless scrolling and binge eating dark chocolate. These behaviors are relatively harmless on the addiction scale, but for me, they represent the glaring divide between what I want now vs what I want most.
When I am mindlessly scrolling I’m not finding fulfillment, connection, meaning, or purpose in life. In fact, I tend to scroll more when I’m feeling frustrated about not finding those things. Now that I’ve recognized that trigger and the behavior that follows it I have a solution similar to redirecting Mack away from his triggers. I create distance. I put the phone in the other room. If the draw is still powerful, I turn it off and put it in the other room.
This environmental adjustment leads to me completing more meaningful activities and being present. The reward is joy, happiness, fulfillment, and feeling a sense of purpose from paying attention to things that actually mean something to me.
Dark chocolate binge eating sounds even sillier in comparison to all the problems I could have or have had, but at the end of the day, it’s a behavior I was struggling to control. Funnily enough, the tipping point of realizing it was a problem wasn’t even related to my health or diet, it was related to my finances. That sh!t is expensive!!!
I was laid off in the first wave of many Covid-19 lockdowns. As a snorkel tour guide on Maui, I was relieved that I didn’t have to work with tourists coming through international airports by the thousands, but I was also unemployed with waaaaay too much time on my hands. I found myself making trips to the top shelf of the corner cabinet far more than I wanted or needed to. Dark chocolate was distracting me from my boredom and giving me a quick hit of temporary satisfaction. The satisfaction didn’t add up to much but the cost of dark chocolate on an expensive island did!
Getting a handle on this unwanted behavior was closely connected to getting a handle on the iPhone addiction. When I was engaging in more purposeful, fulfilling behaviors I wasn’t craving the distraction and quick satisfaction of dark chocolate quite as much, but it was still an issue.
The chocolate itself wasn’t the issue. Far too often food gets moralized or deified as the best or the worst thing you could put in your body. The issue was the lack of self-control, self-awareness, and mindfulness.
To regain control of my relationship I just held myself to one single rule. I could eat dark chocolate any time I wanted… I just had to wait 10 minutes before I did. If, after that 10 minutes I still wanted dark chocolate, I could eat it. More often than not, I did not eat chocolate after that little mindful break.
As I wrap up my comparison between myself and my adorable furry best friend, I realize one more thing. Getting a dog has greatly helped with pulling me out of the slump I was in. Part of it is the daily walks and locking into a schedule for him. Another part is learning about positive reinforcement dog training and absolutely being in the present moment when I’m training him. Lastly, I’ve received the gift of judgment-free unconditional love.
Mack and I hope that you’ve learned from our journey of recognizing triggers and controlling our environments for success and contentment. Now, if you’ll excuse us, after a good walk and writing session it’s nap time!
