The Power of a Good Ramble Around ... A photo story

Today was a lazy rainy Saturday. Lots of time for doing what we love best - cruising around in the woods and on the beach. First a morning walk with the young generation and my Mum on the beach

Next a woods adventure with the whole gang ... First group stays to get across the road :)

                                            Then ... FREEDOM in the woods

Some posing 

                                      

More RUNNING ....

And Finally ... some ZZZZ's

New Beginnings, New Promises ... New Rituals

I really HOPE this post will not result in this response from you. I had planned to take my dogs out for a photo shoot today. Photography has sadly taken a back burner over this crushingly long winter in South Western New Brunswick. By the time I got myself organized to take pictures the dogs were all crashed out in the early evening sun; so, the best I can do for photography today is these two shots, which I actually rather like. 

The dogs are currently engaged in their post eating play session, (a ritual which is always initiated by Thyme), but I am too lazy to pick up my camera again.

We have done a lot outside over the past few days. We are tremendously grateful to have our fields back for cavorting :) Agility, playing, gardening - all five of us revel in what this home of ours has to offer.

I have been thinking a lot lately about rituals and how beautifully they apply to teaching, and by teaching I am referring to: teaching myself, teaching two legged students, teaching dogs and being a student of both species. I have started to reflect on and map in my mind the rituals I find myself engaging in at school, with my own dogs, and with clients. It is a curious and enjoyable process to catalog these little behaviour patterns that we all engage in.

As I work through these chains of behaviour, I have started to re-pattern the ones that are not getting the results I want. Here is a case in point.

I am currently teaching Grade Six (eleven and twelve year olds). I will admit that initially I found this age group very frustrating! In hindsight, I was not using the right motivational tools OR social rituals to engage them in learning. Things were not going very well for me. I reached a fork in the road ... continue to find their behaviour annoying and keep on trucking with my usual bag of tricks. OR try something NEW, seek to understand and to try a new set of "rituals".

As has almost always been my experience as a teacher and a learner, when I opened my mind and released my need to be in the "know" and in the "right" - I very quickly found I was able to motivate and find JOY in teaching. A new set of beliefs was essential and with these new beliefs new patterns of being emerged.

What you may ask has this got to do with dog training? WELL, everything :) When you get the "rituals" right. When you understand how to motivate your dog. When you know just how far you can push and what boundaries you need to set ... your ability to to teach will know few limits :)

What's the "new Promises" part of this entry? The promise IS that I will post every Sunday from here on in ... there I've said it - now I need to make it so and make it a ritual.