My wife and I really want to do some couples counseling, but before then (the wait is really long), I don't know how to talk about something that really bothers me about the way she reacts...
She is not really an animal person. She enjoys their company, but pretty much just resents them and doesn't want to have to do any of the work to help with them. She gets short with them and is SO quick to anger when she is trying to do something and they don't listen immediately (dogs mostly, but the work-load is for the cats). I try to give her pointers on how to work with them, and I try to tell her how important consistency is, but she finds it easier to just yell at them all the time. It drives me crazy and I don't know how to address it without getting upset with her... In my head are all the angry things I want to say (like: you sound like my dad, stop yelling at them, you need to learn not to be so angry...) but I don't know how to say them in a productive way... any advice? It's close to a relationship breaker, as I just see it getting worse over time, not better. I know I will want to address it in therapy, but I also need to be able to address it now before I say something stupid to mess up the relationship beyond repair.