What’s On My Mind?
My baby goes to kindergarten today – my daughter, but certainly not a baby anymore. I had a business – training dogs. I gave it up to stay home and train the baby. Not that I didn’t continue to train dogs. I still worked with dogs and their people… because people kept me in business, kept calling and saying, “My friend said you really helped them”; “ My sister said you were great”. I was humbled by the praise and grateful for the calls. I didn’t do any marketing and fortunately the calls kept coming. Just enough to keep my skills fresh and help me realize that I still love the business of training dogs and their people.
I see many parallels between parenting children and training dogs… the choices we make between positive reinforcement and punishment, the desire to guide and lead and hope they don’t make mistakes, the knowledge that mistakes are essential to learning, loving them and feeling the greatest frustration you have ever known – simultaneously.
Here is one thing I know that is essential to training dogs: they are not human. They may be our “children” – I certainly consider all of the animals I am responsible for my 4-legged children – but they are canines, a different species. Treating them as if they were human does them a disservice because it can rob them of being their best canine self.
So, I have a dog training business – again. It’s called 4-Legged Friend Canine Services. My goal is to help people have a great relationship with their dog/s – sometimes it helps with their children too!
10/14/2010