How Training My Reactive Dog has Made Me Better at My Job

This was a lightning talk given at 2022 Agile Cambridge’s Agile on the Beach

Yes, I’m one of those people that caved and got a Covid “puppy” over lockdown. My ex wanted one, I said yes, and here I am one dog richer! =D What I didn’t realise at the time was how much this dog would disrupt my life, nor the amount of empathy and awareness he’d introduce to how I see things.

In this talk, I’m going to share some of the lessons learned as I work with my dog who is scared of other dogs (yes, I know...sounds crazy!) and break down how those insights have directly influenced me in the work place.

Start with Engagement first and make sure your dog understands that all good things come from you.

Tough feedback is even tougher if you don’t have trust and a relationship first.

You can’t train if your dog is over threshold…Love, not fear is what sticks

Similarly, conversations had when people are heated and purely emotionally-driven do not make for overly productive conversations.

Leverage the drives that already exist and use those to motivate your dog during training in order to achieve goals together.

Meet people where they are at and learn who they are as an individual…pick teh tools and work best for that person and realise that you have to work with the person in front of you.

Dwelling on the mistakes helps no one; shake it off and move on.

Mindset is everything; Modeling behvaiour and servant leadership is key because they’re always watching. Constantly working on improving recovery time also means you’re not sitting in a space with high cortisol levels so do as your dog does…the faster the shake off of stress, the better.

If you’re going to give a correction, be ready with an alternative behaviour so that your dog knows what to do instead. It’s pointless to correct for the sake of correcting.

You’ll get a lot further if you set clear expectations, consistently call out and reward desired behaviours, and provide an example of what good is supposed to look like for the behaviours that you don’t want.

Proof and general the behaviour before you move on.

It’s ignorant to expect that just because someone is capable of something in one environment or with a certain set of conditions, that they will automatically be able to repeat the performance in a more complex/challenging environment that they have not yet had an opportunity to practice in. All this to say, if you plan to increase complexity, make sure you have given someone the tools and opporunity to truly be set up for success.