Learning Language

I went to the feed store to pick up my usual order of feed and supplies. As a regular client of many years I’ve come to have a pretty easy relationship with the owner and his employees. I drive up and they are getting my order together before I ever hit the door.

This time the owner was doing the grunt work himself because he’d fired someone. We talked and he commented he’d given the guy eighteen months and if he hadn’t figured out how to do the job by now he probably never would.

From this launch pad we went into a discussion about communication. He was frustrated because he hadn’t been able to get through to the kid and I was a bit aggravated because I’d spent my morning trying to convince someone, who should have known better, that she didn’t need to shout at her horse; shouting being why her horse wasn’t cooperating in the first place.

Mr. Feed Store Owner shook his head, “Yeah, I see stuff like that all the time. I want to tell the people, ‘Why don’t you go get a job with someone who only speaks Russian and then yells at you because you don’t understand him? See how well you do?’”

“Wow that is a great visual. Okay if I use it?” I asked.

He generously gave me permission to use it. And now I’m sharing it with you. Stop and consider how you would handle it if someone who didn’t speak English had control of your life and yelled at you in their language when you failed to do what they wanted. Now consider that this is what we do with our animals all the time.

Lazy Trainer’s Tip

Make an effort to learn how animals communicate through body language and use this to improve your training skills.