Inspiring Management Tips
Hurricane Irene and the Temperament Test
Irene is fast approaching. By the time a hurricane reaches New England, it usually doesn’t amount to much. But forecasters are calling this one historic. Taking into account the size of this storm, coupled with her wind speed, she’s BIG. My husband and I have been planning an upcoming vacation and we had lined up…
Nose-to-nose with a snapping turtle? What would you do?
I’ve never seen a baby snapping turtle before this past weekend. But I can thank Grace for the experience. My husband and I were enjoying a quiet afternoon by the small river that runs behind our property (some people call it a creek, I refer to it as a river as it technically is, but…
Who are you? (with a fresh view)
In my last post, I talked about the importance of understanding a person by asking the question: “Who are you?” A fellow blogger, Sara, offered this comment, “I would be interested to hear how Grace and you define the answer.” It was a simple statement, but really sunk in for me. Sara had held me…
Who are you?
I’m still reviewing and processing all the information I learned at Suzanne Clothier’s recent workshop on fearful dogs. The lessons most certainly apply to all dogs – and people. apply for signature loan She suggests that there are elemental questions that we should ask a dog when interacting with her. The first of those questions…
Two steps forward, one step backward
This past weekend, I continued my experiment with Grace in the car. You may recall in a recent postI talked about my success in getting her to decide to lay quietly in her bed—a decision she made on her own versus me luring or commanding her to do so. The next time we did this…
Making progress is the important thing when you’re looking for changes
The question often comes up: “Is it possible for someone to change?” I believe it’s possible. However, it’s difficult and the circumstances surrounding it have a major impact on the success of the endeavor. First, we need to establish a realistic timeframe; another aspect is to focus on small improvements, without expecting for transformations to…
Establishing rules works in tandem with freedom of choice
sudburywine.com/app/ We all need rules. This doesn’t hinder our ability to be creative or have decision-making abilities. I think these are often confused. In the last post, I described how Suzanne Clothiercreates interactions between a dog and a human where dogs have a level of decision-making. When a dog can figure out a situation on…
When things don’t get done … ask again?
I’ve always heard that when you give a command to a dog, it’s not good form to keep repeating it until the dog complies. If I ask Grace to come, she should come—right then. Not wait until my third or fourth request, which would encourage a behavior and attitude for Grace that says, “I can…
Maslow, baseball, and being safe
We watch a lot of baseball in this house. I’m not very good at those split second calls to determine whether the runner reaches the base before the ball. It all happens so fast to me and while I’m still trying to figure it out, I hear an echo in the room between my husband…
Handling difficult situations: do you “manage” it or do you have skills to work through it?
When we get into a difficult situation, it’s common to just want the problem to go away. Who wouldn’t? The way we deal with challenging situations is the key to any conflict. For those times when we don’t handle conflict well, it’s most likely because we never learned the skills to know how to navigate…
