So you’re a perfectionist? You like being in the comfort zone of your own knowledge and experience, only doing what you rehearsed a thousand times, in the fields where you excel. “You learn from your mistakes“ or so the people say but why get it wrong when you can also get it right the first time around (of course, only after researching, postponing trying, overthinking, playing it out in your head and months of preparation). Mistakes.. you despise them, (you were always punished for making them), on the outside you look at flawed people with superiority but on the inside you are sent into a self doubting frenzy every time you break a glass in the kitchen or take a wrong turn on the highway. The guilt of doing something “wrong” becomes unbearable, every word you say must be thought out, every action carefully planned, your harshest critic being yourself.

But then once in a while you want a change, loosen up that rigidity, “try out new things”. Sure, you could start slow, subscribing to some group activity you’ve never done before, where you can quit after one attendance because ”it’s not for you” (actually you were the weakest performer and by keeping on going and improving you would have to admit to yourself that you can’t be good at everything you do for the first time so you rather quit than face the perceived inferiority the next session). But that little devil voice in the back of your head longing for spontaneity, being silenced for so long, wants to go all in, wants to bring chaos into your life. And for a brief moment, if you give in and listen to it you might….get a dog.

Getting desensitized to making mistakes is what you strived for? Congratulations, here is your chance. Because you will make a lot of them. Every minute of every day. You will fail to remove ticks properly, reinforce his fear of baths, won’t correct him enough, correct him too much, give him wrong food, bring him too the wrong vet, coddle him too much, push him too far, leave him alone too much, supervise him too much….an this in only the span of a week. You thought acquiring extensive knowledge from YouTube videos is the way to go? Welcome to the real world, you can leave your theoretical thinking at the door, practice makes progress. Perceived or real mistakes, they may or may not have lasting effects, you will only see with time. You will be judged harshly (mostly by yourself) for every error. Good thing is, you can’t dwell on it for too long, because the next day you will make ten new ones.

Thought about quitting after the first failure? Tough luck, here’s how your next 7-10 years will look like. Meaning A LOT of chances to fail. You have to keep on going. Some say it will get better eventually. In my opinion, the only thing getting better will be you…at making mistakes. At tolerating them. At overcoming them. At accepting YOU for who you are in that moment (even if it’s a whiny little b*, regretting every life decision that led you to sit on the kitchen floor and google “dog barks at doorbell”).

You want to get off that high horse of yours? (rather fall off face first into the mud?). Get a grumpy, stubborn old rescue who doesn’t like anyone or anything new and is not motivated by anything rather than fear (ok, by food as well but only if it’s Bologna sausage). Does he remind you of someone? Do people around you start telling you that you two are alike? How ironic! Now you have to fix yourself as well in the process. “Be a leader, be more confident.” You heard these words all your life but now you have to ACTUALLY deal with the idea of becoming more secure, if not, it’s the blind leading the blind.

Used to be a dreamer, always in your head, liked to react slowly and planned, as to not do something wrong? Now you can forget about that. By the time you think about if it should be ok or not to let him sniff that bush, he will already have eaten a moldy piece of bread off the floor and rolled in some cat poop. Acting quickly and on the spot is the way to go from now on.

Your conviction was that once you learn about what to do and what not, and even more, once you had a slip-up, the experience will lead you to not having one ever again? Well you will eat your own words when you will act incorrectly for the hundredth time during a dog encounter, thinking “why did I do this wrong ONCE AGAIN, even though I practiced it in my head??” Being less harsh on other people’s mistakes as well might be a bonus outcome.

You were accustomed to hiding your mistakes, feeling ashamed, putting your best face forward, “fake it ‘till you make it”-style? Forget about it, by week 4 your dog will have studied you thoroughly, knowing your weak spots inside out. All he does is watch your every move all day long, you can’t hide them from him, even less so from yourself, as he will be a direct mirror of your actions. You will have to learn calmness in moments of doubt and being true to yourself even if it feels scary.

Attaching feelings to your oversights like frustration, anger and self-blame, was your go-to reaction? This will have to change as well, since you won’t be able to keep up the negativity, it will feel insignificant and exhausting by the tenth mishap of the walk around the block, you might as well build up some stamina and a good sense of humor. (the goofiness of a dog howling at a dried-up leaf will help with that a bit).

The more mistakes you make the more the chances are...to get it right! You have more chances of succeeding. See it this way: you could get one of those perfect, obedient, majestic Viszlas or Rough Collies, but knowing you, you would take it for granted and regard it as too easy, starting to find flaws where there are none, like the fact that they only wipe their paws twice when entering the house. No, go get an anxiety-ridden street mut with behavioral issues that you have no idea how to deal with, just to make sure you get the maximum amount of mistakes out of the day...in order to become a mistake-making master, wearing them proudly like a badge, not hiding anymore, and eventually, after every step forward, after every small win, you might feel liberated...from your all-consuming fear of failure.