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#1
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Mentoring
"Suja" wrote in message news:wMI5b.44919$xf.22554@lakeread06... It's pretty much going to be email/phone work with someone who wishes his GSD would act more like his Lab. I know nothing at all about what specific problems they might be having just yet. Now that I think about it, this is a serious responsibility - I'm what is standing between this dog having a home and being homeless (or worse, PTS). I'm not a dog trainer, nor do I play one on TeeVee, and although I've had fairly decent success troubleshooting problems, I'm really scared about this. Has anyone had any experience working on problem solving in this manner? How exactly did it go? Troubleshooting is exactly the right word. You have excellent problem solving skills and a bunch of online buddies willing to offer suggestions. I think you will do great. |
#2
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"Suja" wrote in message news:wMI5b.44919$xf.22554@lakeread06... It's pretty much going to be email/phone work with someone who wishes his GSD would act more like his Lab. I know nothing at all about what specific problems they might be having just yet. Now that I think about it, this is a serious responsibility - I'm what is standing between this dog having a home and being homeless (or worse, PTS). I'm not a dog trainer, nor do I play one on TeeVee, and although I've had fairly decent success troubleshooting problems, I'm really scared about this. Has anyone had any experience working on problem solving in this manner? How exactly did it go? Troubleshooting is exactly the right word. You have excellent problem solving skills and a bunch of online buddies willing to offer suggestions. I think you will do great. |
#3
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Child wrote:
Troubleshooting is exactly the right word. You have excellent problem solving skills and a bunch of online buddies willing to offer suggestions. I think you will do great. I think I'm afraid of whether this will turn out to be something that requires hands-on work with someone. Like if the dog is being aggressive. I'm pretty sure that people who would consider dumping the dog wouldn't be open to the idea of paying someone money to work with them, or putting in a lot of time and effort to solve the problem. If the dog ends up homeless, I *know* I'll feel responsible. Even if logic tells me that it isn't my fault. Suja |
#4
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Child wrote:
Troubleshooting is exactly the right word. You have excellent problem solving skills and a bunch of online buddies willing to offer suggestions. I think you will do great. I think I'm afraid of whether this will turn out to be something that requires hands-on work with someone. Like if the dog is being aggressive. I'm pretty sure that people who would consider dumping the dog wouldn't be open to the idea of paying someone money to work with them, or putting in a lot of time and effort to solve the problem. If the dog ends up homeless, I *know* I'll feel responsible. Even if logic tells me that it isn't my fault. Suja |
#5
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In article wMI5b.44919$xf.22554@lakeread06,
Suja wrote: I'm not a dog trainer, nor do I play one on TeeVee, and although I've had fairly decent success troubleshooting problems, I'm really scared about this. Has anyone had any experience working on problem solving in this manner? How exactly did it go? Suja What's the difference between that & what you're doing here? Most people just want to get their dogs to behave and the issues are going to be the same issues you see repeated here day after day after day. If it's over your head, you should have some resources for the folks to call to get more in-depth answers. Since you aren't going to be taking on the trainer's job, mentoring will pretty much equal hand-holding. I've mentored people in a couple of areas and, since they weren't paying me to do it, all I needed to do was offer advice or resources. 80% of the time, I had enough experience to walk them through things on the phone, 10% I had to go to them to physically show them stuff & 10% I had to refer out. I think you're building this up in your mind too much. The only thing I'd worry about is how many people you're going to be mentoring because it can eat up a lot of time. JMO |
#6
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In article wMI5b.44919$xf.22554@lakeread06,
Suja wrote: I'm not a dog trainer, nor do I play one on TeeVee, and although I've had fairly decent success troubleshooting problems, I'm really scared about this. Has anyone had any experience working on problem solving in this manner? How exactly did it go? Suja What's the difference between that & what you're doing here? Most people just want to get their dogs to behave and the issues are going to be the same issues you see repeated here day after day after day. If it's over your head, you should have some resources for the folks to call to get more in-depth answers. Since you aren't going to be taking on the trainer's job, mentoring will pretty much equal hand-holding. I've mentored people in a couple of areas and, since they weren't paying me to do it, all I needed to do was offer advice or resources. 80% of the time, I had enough experience to walk them through things on the phone, 10% I had to go to them to physically show them stuff & 10% I had to refer out. I think you're building this up in your mind too much. The only thing I'd worry about is how many people you're going to be mentoring because it can eat up a lot of time. JMO |
#7
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Suja wrote in
news:5xJ5b.45048$xf.17125@lakeread06: Child wrote: Troubleshooting is exactly the right word. You have excellent problem solving skills and a bunch of online buddies willing to offer suggestions. I think you will do great. I think I'm afraid of whether this will turn out to be something that requires hands-on work with someone. Like if the dog is being aggressive. I'm pretty sure that people who would consider dumping the dog wouldn't be open to the idea of paying someone money to work with them, or putting in a lot of time and effort to solve the problem. If the dog ends up homeless, I *know* I'll feel responsible. Even if logic tells me that it isn't my fault. If the dog has serious problems your mentoring job will be to help them find a good trainer who helps with those sorts of things. Mentoring doesnt' mean "solely responsible for". -- BethF, Anchorage, AK It's YOUR God. They are YOUR rules. YOU burn in hell. |
#8
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Suja wrote in
news:5xJ5b.45048$xf.17125@lakeread06: Child wrote: Troubleshooting is exactly the right word. You have excellent problem solving skills and a bunch of online buddies willing to offer suggestions. I think you will do great. I think I'm afraid of whether this will turn out to be something that requires hands-on work with someone. Like if the dog is being aggressive. I'm pretty sure that people who would consider dumping the dog wouldn't be open to the idea of paying someone money to work with them, or putting in a lot of time and effort to solve the problem. If the dog ends up homeless, I *know* I'll feel responsible. Even if logic tells me that it isn't my fault. If the dog has serious problems your mentoring job will be to help them find a good trainer who helps with those sorts of things. Mentoring doesnt' mean "solely responsible for". -- BethF, Anchorage, AK It's YOUR God. They are YOUR rules. YOU burn in hell. |
#9
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Keep one thing in mind *all the time* and that is the simple fact that you
can't make people follow your advice. You can give it, they can say they'll follow it, they can say they understand and so on but whether they do or not is something else entirely. Sometimes people have already made up their minds that its not going to work and they only consult someone else to ease their own conscience before getting rid of the dog. I've had dogs come back from adoption for absolutely STUPID reasons. I told the adopters what to do, I told them how to do it and for how long. I told them what to look for in terms of progress and what to watch for in terms of red flags. They *said* they'd try "because we really want this to work" but the simple truth is that they never did. They only wanted to make themselves feel better for when they call me 1-2 weeks later at 10pm and tell me the dog needs to go back to rescue in the morning. I'm talking things like whining in the crate (in a new adoptive home), being a tad bit mouthy when excited, having accidents in the house when no one is home yet the people won't utilize a crate, etc. Nothing major, nothing that can't easily be fixed, no reason to give a dog away for yet its done and with relative ease. -- Tara |
#10
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Keep one thing in mind *all the time* and that is the simple fact that you
can't make people follow your advice. You can give it, they can say they'll follow it, they can say they understand and so on but whether they do or not is something else entirely. Sometimes people have already made up their minds that its not going to work and they only consult someone else to ease their own conscience before getting rid of the dog. I've had dogs come back from adoption for absolutely STUPID reasons. I told the adopters what to do, I told them how to do it and for how long. I told them what to look for in terms of progress and what to watch for in terms of red flags. They *said* they'd try "because we really want this to work" but the simple truth is that they never did. They only wanted to make themselves feel better for when they call me 1-2 weeks later at 10pm and tell me the dog needs to go back to rescue in the morning. I'm talking things like whining in the crate (in a new adoptive home), being a tad bit mouthy when excited, having accidents in the house when no one is home yet the people won't utilize a crate, etc. Nothing major, nothing that can't easily be fixed, no reason to give a dog away for yet its done and with relative ease. -- Tara |
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