What I learned from my dog trainer.
Or, more specifically, my dog’s dog trainer.
My beloved canine companion hasn’t been acting so beloved lately. It took me a while for my own internal lightbulb to go off about my dog’s behavior. He’s always been pretty well-behaved, so I processed all of his bad behavior in that context. “Huh,” i thought, when he barked at my friends innocently trying to come in the door and take off their coats “that’s weird. He’s normally so lovely when friends come over.” Surely my dog who has never needed a trainer wasn’t doing anything that would require one now.
Finally, when he growled at a sweet old lady, I called in a professional.
The first thing she did when she sat down was to ask about whether anything has changed in our life and household. She didn’t focus on his behavior, she focused on his environment. And there have been changes in our lives. A new, bigger house. Renovations. Morecoming and going through his previously quiet domain. She almost didn’t even have to do anything else. It became clear that while we weren’t changing how we were acting towards our dog–there were plenty of other dynamics encouraging his escalating behavior.
The great news is that there is nothing wrong with our little monster. He’s not sick, he’s not mean. But now we have to think about how to adjust and reinforce his behaviors to make him more comfortable and confident as our lives change and adjust.
It reminded me of a lawyer I’ve been talking to who was lamenting having to take a continuing education course in his area of the law. Undoubtedly quite accomplished in his field, this lawyer is resisting further training, because he’s never needed it before. While that’s certainly true, his comfort with his expertise has closed this lawyer offto opportunities to better himself professionally. Sure, this is a brilliant guy who knows a great deal. But he’s ignoring the fact that the world is always changing around him, and he’s resisting seeing the gravity of those changes.
Take it from my dog. We always have to ask ourselves whether we’re watching the changes in our professional environment, and learning from them.
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Citsk on December 17th, 2008
Love it.