Dharma and Greg: What Can Sitcom Characters Teach us About Dog Training
This post has been long-time coming. I want to thank Leslie and Craig for giving me a much needed kick in the butt to finally talk about the subject of congruence.
You can view Leslie’s and Craig’s comments that spurred this post here
Ding dong. The door opens and it’s Dharma.
Thank you for coming, she tells you. Nunzio, our Welsh Corgi is going crazy. Greg and I can’t seem to get him “under control”.
Before we continue, I would like to add few more colors to our protagonists.
In addition to being a stuck-up conservative, straight-laced, and slightly repressed; let’s make Greg a former army man. Say a drill sergeant.
And in addition to being a hippy-dippy flower-child, let’s make Dharma even more empathic, soft and sweet and just a butterfly in a human form.
One issue we are having with Nunzio is his insistence on chewing electrical cables around the house, Greg said.
Greg has some ideas on how to handle Nunzio's behavior and is dead-set on using an E-Collar. He’s seen the Army canine unit use the E-Collar and Greg has witnessed first-hand how quickly and effectively they get dogs to comply with desired behavior. No amount of convincing will change his mind.
Do you:
- Politely excuse yourself and explain that you are against E-Collars leaving Greg to go find another dog trainer who is all-too-happy to use it perhaps excessively, or
- Do you show Greg the least invasive way of using the E-Collar?
Dharma tells you that she has problems with Nunzio during walks.
Whenever they meet another dog, Nunzio goes crazy. Barking and pulling, looking like he wants to eat the other dog.
You suggest a treat or a toy distraction, however, Dharma tells you she rarely remembers to bring treats along on walks.
An early and timely leash correction might be appropriate here, but Dharma doesn’t want to hear of it. She is dead-set against any kind of force-based manipulation.
What do you do?
I wrote this to illustrate the importance of taking a client’s disposition into consideration when sharing dog training information.
What is congruent with our personality may not be so with somebody else’s.
Some people are “hard” and some are “soft”. Same is true of dogs. Neither is good not bad, its just is.
The important part here is to remove our selves from the equation and do what’s best for the dog and “speak” to the client’s natural tendencies and bring them closer to the “middle”.
What do you think?
