Making the transition.

It used to be that I found myself to be the student.
An awful lot of the time I still feel that way, but lately there have been some exceptions.

I have noticed in the last few weeks especially that the balance of situations in which I am a student versus a teacher has seemingly been swayed to the teacher side. This is something that I find unsettling.

As you may have figured out by now, I try to consistently learn; finding myself in a situation in which i seem to be teaching more than learning brings into question whether or not I am truly placing enough interest in the learning end of things.

Dont get me wrong. I believe that it is important to pass along the things that I know to whomever it is that may want to learn them. My concern is that I am not making enough of an attempt to learn, or that my interests have become stagnant.

SO I have taken some time for self-examination. What have I learned lately? Turns out quite a bit, but the most interesting of it has to do with Bubba the dog.

Our dog is 9 years old now. She is 110lbs of Black Lab and Husky mixed bullheadedness. She is kind, gentle, sweet, and lovable. She's also one of the biggest damned dogs you'll ever see. I usually say that she is too smart to be that big.

On to the point. Bubba lives in our garage. She has a dog door that exits to a 5' by 20' wood decked kennel with a gate on one end and a lattice panel on the other. This arrangement has always worked very well for her. Until this winter.

At some point this winter, she decided to see if she could find a way out of the kennel. She did. Again, and again, and again... The old chain link gate from the kennel has been since recycled because i just couldnt patch it back together anymore. She hasnt managed to open the new one yet, but I'm sure that she will find a way. She is bullheaded remember.

Furthermore, she appears to have forgotten the rules in her old age. The limits of her yard, which she does know very well, are ignored most of the time when she is outside playing, as are rules about chewing things, etc.

Maybe im too soft, but I love my dog, and have let her slide on the rules, after all, if I was 63 in dog years, I wouldnt want some 33 year old punk telling me what to do.

So, Ive done something I swore Id never do. I installed underground fencing yesterday.

This is the part where I learned something. The fence works by giving her a series of beeps based on her proximity to the boundary, followed by a small shock if she gets to it.

I did not think this would work on my dog. It did. Almost instantly... But why? I dont really buy into the whole shes learning her yard thing, or even the shock fear thing.

I think that the beep ( she doesnt usually get the shock) to her is something akin to me asking her to return to her yard. Except she sneaks out when Im not looking. The collar is always looking. Absolutely amazing. In the last 24 hours since I installed this thing, She got zapped three times. The dog has not gone any closer than the first beep since.

Turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks. Bear in mind, she already knew her boundaries very well, so it seems as though she adapted to the collar quickly due to that fact. she doesnt have to guess where the line is, or even look for the flags that we put out to mark it. she just had to figure out how close she could get to it.

But heres the rub. As an employer, I find that people are the same way. My normal philosophy on management is that grown-ups are just oversize kindergartners.

A five year old takes about the same group of things as my dog to learn and practice the rules. People need to know the rules first. Then they need to be monitored consistently and evenly. They need to be gently reminded when they start to stretch the boundaries, and zapped when they get close. But, like any good dog, they also need to be rewarded at random when they are doing things properly... Too much or too consistent of a reward will spoil them.

I will guarantee that as you deal with your dog, children, or employees, if you follow the kindergarten theory, you will find yourself raising all of them to the highest level of performance possible.

Its a nice day, go take your dog for a walk.
Greg