Trigger warning/content warning: this is a post about me getting dumped on my ass one morning by my own dog after someone spooked him. Please understand. He really does try to be a good boy. He does. He needs training and I know that. We're working on it. Also: language..I'm a bit salty-sweary. (Side note to Becky: if you were out around Spit Book Road and DW Highway in the 90's, you may have spotted me out with my Collies doing the public life thing. I also did night grooming at the PetSmart; my then Collie puppy served as a demo dog for grooming demonstrations more than once. He had an adoring public up until he passed.) Okay..here we go: For many years, I have had dogs that did at least OK with public life..at least until they didn’t. Mostly due to age, or health concerns. At which point, the dogs who weren't into the idea of public life anymore, were promptly retired from notions like public life, and everyone respected that. But, that was, very much, a different time and place. I used to tell people..’If you see Doggo and I ‘in the wild’, please do come and say hello!’ I don't know if I can say that yet, with this one. Max, my Lab, is a rescue dog. Although he has had some training, Max is..well..Max. He'd apparently really been through it before he came here. It took months of a strict routine just to get him to calm the eff down. As such, Max is just learning about things like ‘hey I think I really like going exploring!’, and 'hey I think I like having a mom!'. However… I like to say that all pets, hell, all animals in general, have something that I refer to an an ‘unpredictability quotient’. That is to say, that every animal, no matter how laid back, no matter how well trained, no matter how sociable..is not only capable of, but will, at some point, actually encounter something that causes them to lose their composure. Max is no exception to that. Anyhoo. I’ve had to change my dog approach policy after ‘an incident’. In a nutshell.. let's all pretend you didn't see me out with Max if you think you did.

Thanks. I think I may have found a property up in a tiny town in Maine that will be absolutely nifty for my next act. It'll be better for Max (and the kitties), too.

Your furry family is beautiful.

Here's my crew.

I came up with this one on my own: I write for people who, at 2am, Google the bewildering and the aggravating parts of their relationship. I run Black Sheep Outpost, a small home-based operation covering the unglamorous side of relationships, starting over from less than ideal circumstances, and plenty of whatever else refuses fit neatly into an aesthetic. I am not a therapist. I just write the things you'd say to one, if you ever figured out how to start the sentence.

These are genius even though I'm not in the coaching space. That said. Thank you for helping me to understand that even I could weaponise a wound/shadow/ what-have-you. Now I have some thinking to do.

I've done some shadow work for myself. Not sure how I'd use it in my particular business, though.