Posts Tagged ‘leadership’
Establishing rules works in tandem with freedom of choice
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 their…
Read MoreWhen 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…
Read MoreHandling 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…
Read MoreHow is this for you?
If you’ve been here recently, you know that Grace and I attended a workshop this past weekend designed to help dogs who are fearful. The presenter was Suzanne Clothier and it was hosted at our local humane shelter. This seminar left me with so much information that I’m still processing it all. It was sixteen…
Read MoreOh chute, this is easy!
I was a presenter at a workshop yesterday discussing best practices for successful hiring of employees. Before we started, I was talking with one of the attendees, wanting to know if there was a particular thing that triggered her to come. She said that she was always interested in learning more about HR topics, adding…
Read MoreI’ll take a frog, please!
At this morning’s Rotary meeting, our guest speaker was a dog trainer. It seems everywhere I turn these days I’m around some dog and/or animal-related activity, which makes me very happy. And I didn’t even have anything to do with arranging for the speaker! Denise Mazzola gave a compelling presentation about a trip she made…
Read MoreIs this as good as it gets?
Next weekend Grace and I will be attending a two-day class together. It’s for dogs that are fearful, aggressive or reactive. Grace can be all of them, in varying degrees. I submitted an application to have her considered as a case study and she was accepted. Since I’ve tried lots of things to improve these…
Read MoreLazy dog daze of summer
In New England, there are only a few weeks of warm, sunny weather in the summer – if you’re lucky. So when the sun is out and the temperatures are perfect, it’s wise to take advantage of it. The last week or so has been that kind of weather. Temperatures have been ideal, the sun…
Read MoreMissed opportunities for leadership
In my last post,I talked about situations where we might step in too aggressively and lead through some event or task when it would have been better to follow. Some people are just natural leaders and they are comfortable taking control of any situation – especially when there is a void and no one else…
Read MoreRacing to be the lead dog doesn’t always make you a winner
Grace loves the woods. On many Sunday mornings we go for a walk with a small group of people in search of mushrooms.She’s always in motion out there and I absolutely love to watch her graceful moves as she navigates around, over, and through a variety of natural obstacles in her way. On rare occasions…
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