The hardest part hits the next morning. You wake up, your hand reaches for the leash out of pure muscle memory, and then you remember. That moment of silence is deafening. You might feel a weird phantom sensation—like hearing nails clicking on the floor, or that jingle of the collar. You’re not crazy.
The fix? Don't fix it. But do change your routine for a few days. Take a different route when you go for a solo walk. Don’t stand by the usual food bowl spot. Your brain needs new patterns to stop expecting the old ones. It sounds silly, but it works. Your brain is a habit machine, and right now, you have to break the machine.
