Dog Listener Training and doing some long overdue DIY on the house have split my attention lately but you'd surprised at what they share in common.

When you look at all that needs to be done, DIY tasks can seem daunting, yet break them down into smaller pieces and concentrate on one job at a time, and before you know it you have made some great progress.  Which is exactly the approach I recommend you take with Dog Listener Training when you're dealing with a number of different dog behaviour problems.

One particular sticking point (literally) was the hardened glue on the wooden floor in the hallway that was used to put down the most dreadful linoleum when I bought the place. Sometimes I wonder why we say the French have style…

Anyway, I'd tried to sand it off with an industrial sander but to no avail, and had decided to replace the whole floor, but for some reason yesterday I thought I'd see if I could use some patience and try to get the stuff off one last time.

As it turns out, it is coming off really easily with a combination of scraper and sandpaper. It will take a bit of time, but the results are going to be well worth it.

Likewise with training a dog, we can feel there's no hope in one area of what we're trying to do, yet all it takes is to approach the problem from a slightly different direction and we see an immediate difference.

I've been really delighted with the progress made by several of my clients on my dog listener training coaching programme, highlighted by a fantastic phone-in with them last Monday.

I am especially happy as the people concerned were really having some deep seated issues with their dogs, but now are seeing the fruits of their labour. Training a dog takes time and patience and I take my hat off to them (and my safety goggles and mask).

Just like them, I will keep going until I have the results I'm after. I’ll even post a photo of the hallway when it’s done… I am becoming a bit of a DIY bore these days!  Tony Knight