Hi FS - this is good advice, thank you. I have no idea whether H is working on his own issues or not. Whether he's so focussed on his work he doesn't have time or whether it is bubbling away in the background as he works and spends time alone. I don't think he's in IC and I'd be gobsmacked if it was, but there are other ways to work on issues, I know. I guess my feeling is that I need to respect his boundaries, not ask him intrusive questions about himself, not start an R talk, and just be observant and focussed on my own stuff.
Anyway - I want to focus on my GAL in this post. I've come to the end of a hard piece of work. Tonight I am going out to the next city with Eldest and we're going to celebrate and stay overnight in a hotel. In the morning we're coming back and collecting Youngest then collecting our new dog. We're all really excited about it and have been counting the days for a good while now. I think our hands will be full but I'm hoping it will be a really positive piece of joy for the children and me. It's interesting- while we've been researching dog training methods we've already (me and the kids, that is) had so many positive conversations about encouragement, punishment, deterrent, criticism etc. I notice a change in the way we all speak to each other, even though that wasn't my intention when we started looking into force-free gentle and positive dog training methods.
