Posts Tagged ‘communication’
The proverbial backbone: having the courage to speak and listen openly to others
Tomorrow morning Grace and I are leaving at the crack of dawn (she doesn’t know this yet) and drive two hours west. We’re going to meet a dog chiropractor and have her evaluate Grace. Mind you, I’m not even sure what, if anything is wrong with Grace. I know most people would (and will) think…
Read MoreThe power of liking lichen
As the end of this week rolls around, it strikes me that I’ve had numerous conversations that focus on career choices. While at the grocery store late one afternoon, I ran into an old friend who told me her current work isn’t that rewarding and she is starting a process to figure out what she…
Read MoreVacation time offers opportunity to see the big picture of “performance”
A couple of people have asked me how Grace did while we were away on vacation. We have often left Grace with two different families, good friends who are really great with Grace, but this time was a little different. First it was longer; this would be two weeks and while there was one time…
Read MoreWho 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…
Read MoreWho 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…
Read MoreTwo 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…
Read MoreEstablishing 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…
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 MoreMaslow, 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…
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…
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