White Blisters In Throa

Communication

Many problems that complicate human communication also exist in our relationship with dogs. Dog or son, or puppy parent, friend or Fido, we still find ways to understand and be understood, so is the nature of communication in any form. We still have to find ways to give shape to our communication with respect, curiosity point of view, willingness to listen (even if we do not like what we hear), understanding of how our communication is received and how it could be affected the listener. We have yet to find a way to not only hear with your ears, listening means harmonizing our senses to the statement of another, to the nuances and gestures of the eyes and breathe in the body. To hear our dogs we need to listen with your heart.

In a love relationship must be willing to do to get us to choose the quality event, knowing that in every interaction we move only in two directions: towards greater trust, understanding and relationship intensity or at a greater distance between ourselves and another. The way we choose to communicate will enhance or limit our relationship.
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In any communication we have the power to choose how to communicate with dogs. If we love them, if we respect them, if we are trying to create a quality event, then we also have an obligation to listen to what they have to say.

What is inevitable in any communication is this: the common ingredient in all our relationships, whether with men or beasts, we are. As they say: "Wherever you go, you're there forever." Our beliefs, expectations and assumptions color all our communications up to astonishing levels.
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Very often what we understand as stupid or stubborn has little to do with the level of intelligence dog. What we really mean when we say that a dog is stupid or stubborn or lazy is that he does not agree with us, it is not doing what we want. When we try to force a dog to accept our specific methodology and ignore what it says about the inadequacy for him, we are actually saying that in our toolbox is not a teaching that works for him and really do not even care. We believe that the failure is due only to the dog stubborn, stupid, dominant, fearful (choose your adjective) and not on our approach to it.
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Try to see from another point of view, it is sometimes easier said than done. No matter how much we can be empathetic, many errors and mistakes are made as we move to fumble trying to understand, to guess, by walking a few miles in the legs of another.


(From: "Bones Would Rain from the Sky" by Suzanne Clothier)