Act Like A Dog
Oftentimes I will tell clients that when they improve their energy towards their dog, they are also improving themselves in the process. With great training, it all comes down to great energy: patient, calm, focused, determined energy. If you allow yourself to become a part of the training experience, you begin to find that you yourself have become a calmer person. What may have caused you to lose it in the past, you now see from a different perspective. And as a result, you are handling whatever life throws at you with a better state of mind.
I had one such experience yesterday. With my flight canceled and my bag held captive with the other checked-in luggage, I began to panic. And then worse, according to the airline, I would not have been able to get a flight out of Charlotte until Wednesday. With no bag, no immediate way home, and traveling alone, I was beginning to lose it. But, I realized that I wasn’t going to do myself any good by panicking, so I told myself to calm down. I then realized that there was a fellow New Yorker in the customer service line with me who was talking out loud and saying how she was just going to drive home! So, I used my gut and best judgment skills and introduced myself. I told her that I was in the same predicament and that if she wanted to rent a car, I would split the cost with her. It was in Charlotte that our adventure began.
Our travels took us first on a flight to Rochester, NY. Still bag-less, I had resolved to fill out a baggage claim form so I could just get home. Once in Rochester, a car was rented and off we went. For 9hrs, we drove in horrible conditions. The snow was blowing left and right, the roads were not plowed, and therefore you didn’t know if you were in the left, middle, or right lane. All the while I’m thinking, here I am in a car with a perfect stranger. We are different ages, ethnicities, and we come from different backgrounds. The only thing we have in common is our will to get home. At one point I took the wheel. I rarely drive on the interstate and never in a blizzard. As I was driving, I began to realize just how tense I was. And that tension was affecting my driving. So I told myself to relax. As I began to relax, the driving became a bit easier. This is a similar tip that I give my clients. If you are tense, your dog will feel the tension, and you will get no where. When you are calm, you see much better results. We left Rochester at 9pm…we reached Manhattan at 7am….in one piece.
Now, did this by chance encounter turn into a lifelong friendship? Absolutely not. It was an encounter based on instinct and necessity. We parted ways, after which I realized that this person had some wackadoo behavior under her belt that she thankfully kept hidden until after I was cooped up in a car with her. Given the situation, I could have responded in several ways, but I opted to ‘act like a dog.’ Dogs have the uncanny ability to forgive and forget. As I was in the process of writing this entry, I came across a post on Facebook written by Marley’s Mutts Dog Rescue: “Resilience, forgiveness, and acceptance–all virtues our dogs have learned to exercise far better than we.” We should all learn to act more like a dog!