Now that the social distancing restrictions are being relaxed - a little - I’m delighted to see that many of my UK colleagues in the force-free dog training world are once more able to run their classes, albeit with many restrictions and caveats.
It has been a hard time for them. A business they had worked to build up over years of dedicated hard work - closed overnight.
Many got government relief, some did not.
And it got me to thinking about diversity of effort.
Diversity in everything
The more streams of income you can generate, the less dependent you are on just one. Many of these trainers - along with yoga teachers, personal trainers, cookery teachers, and the like - have discovered the joys of online learning. It kept them in touch with their audience while they couldn’t meet physically, and it kept some income coming in.
Many of these people have dropped this internet work like a stone, and gone back to face-to-face classes only.
There’s huge value in “live” classes, of course. And there are dog-owners who cannot see the possibilities of online classes. But this is usually based on a misconception - that the trainer has to see the dog behaving poorly in order to make change.
If you’re working with an expert, there’s a lot you don’t need to explain or show. I can’t tell you how many clients - when I visited their homes to help them with their reactive dog - would start putting on their coat so they could take their dog out on to the street to put him into a difficult situation and demonstrate to me just what their dog did!
Not only did I not want the dog to get stressed at the beginning of our session, but I absolutely knew already exactly what their dog did! It’s what I do! That’s why they engaged me! That’s why I was there!
So if you’re feeling concerned that working with a dog training expert without them actually seeing your dog won’t work - think again! I know from the response to my books and my online courses that physical presence is not necessary (and in some cases, entirely inappropriate) for massive change and improvement to happen.
Just be sure the trainer you pick is force-free! Using force with a reactive, anxious, aggressive - Growly - dog is not only cruel, but counter-productive. i.e. it makes things worse!
But we’re not out of the woods yet
What may happen if there’s another clampdown?
Not so many years ago, the internet was not even a spark on the horizon. There were no e-readers, no audiobooks. Phones were used for . . . phone calls! What we now take for granted was only seen in sci-fi films - strange visions of the future that we never really expected to happen.
Who knows what new things await us! This is exciting! And I for one want to be there, exploring the new possibilities to get our valuable message out to the world. There are billions of people who still see dogs as chattles, soulless, non-sentient beings, not worthy of respect. We are inching our way into changing this way of thinking. SO much more to do!
Being open to novelty is not only essential in our business lives. It’s just as important in our own personal life, and of course in our life with our dog.
One of the chief triggers for reactive dogs is novelty. The ability to accept and process new things is vital to their rehabilitation. So treading the same path (figuratively speaking), always having the same responses, dealing with the same reactions, feeling the same frustration, is not going to lead to change!
You know the old saying,
Your mind is like a parachute - it only works when it’s open!
An open and enquiring mind will lead us to the answers and directions we seek.
Change for your dog!
◆ “No matter how many times I say xyz, he still carries on the same …”
◆ “I’ve tried everything …”
◆ “There’s no hope for my dog, he’ll never change …”
All these statements I hear frequently suggest that what you’re doing isn’t working! Time to put your thinking cap on and find a new way.
Repeating the same actions and expecting a different result is not terribly realistic. And, as is attributed to Einstein,
“You can’t solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it.”
Your dog is a sentient being - like you. This is happily enshrined in law in many European countries. He’s not a machine that just needs a few tweaks with a spanner to function correctly. Your journey with your dog is a journey you take together. It’s what’s happening between the two of you that will dictate the level of success you will reach.
So what are you going to do this week to make some changes with your dog? What new thoughts are you going to bring to your dog “problems”? What new approach might you try?
Let me know what you decide on, and what works for you. A new approach could be just what you need!