consulting
Embracing Change Kathie Gregory examines life during and post-pandemic and how we can adjust our thinking to become more creative and intuitive in the way we engage with our animals
I
n these ongoing strange times, we are finding ourselves faced with what people are calling the “new normal.” I don't think any of us know exactly which parts of life will change completely, what will go back to how things were before, and what will be somewhere inbe tween, but there are many people who are already doing things differ ently. I am very well aware that this is not necessarily a positive situation, and so many are struggling with lost income. Some have lost their jobs, and some their homes. Some have lost their lives. We can't change what people have gone through, but we can hope for a positive future. With that in mind, I wanted to look at the opportu nities that are emerging from the world being in lockdown. We have the chance to look at what and how we do things with the animals we live and work with and find inspiration to improve.
Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail As the world changed, many of us had to change our ways to comply with government guidelines to keep us safe. Once the coronavirus hit, measures to keep people safe were communicated ahead of time so we could think about how to change the way we do things and live within the restrictions imposed. You may be wondering what this has to do with animals, but one of the things that helps both us and them be suc cessful is preparing, as opposed to winging it. If we fail to prepare, we are leaving things to chance, and we may well find ourselves and our animals in a situation that could have been avoided. This is relevant to everything we do, particularly when we do something for the first time, and when we consider the emotional mind and how moods change throughout the day. We need to think through what we are going to do, the possibilities of what might happen, and potential strategies to counter potential unwanted outcomes. With this in mind, think through what you might expect to en counter if you are taking your young puppy out somewhere new. Pre pare for how he might react to new experiences and plan ahead what you can do to support him. The same applies to a young horse. What training do you have in place? Is this enough for the situation you are going to be in, or will your horse be overwhelmed and not able to listen to you?
© Can Stock Photo/photocreo
Try Something New In these changed circumstances, we have had to think of new ways to do what we did before. In some instances, this has proved to be less ef ficient and not the best solution, but there are many things that are ac tually better. We often do things the same way because we have always done it like that. This may be because we don't like stepping out of our comfort zone, and do not like change. Often, we do not change unless forced to do so. But, without change we stagnate and may miss oppor tunities to do something we wouldn't otherwise have done if we had re mained in the same old comfortable, familiar situation. We can take advantage of how we have had to try new ways of doing things and apply that to how we teach and interact with our ani mals. Change is more scary when you don't have any clue as to the out come, but we have all managed to make changes and we have coped. This means we can all be brave and step out of our comfort zone.
52
BARKS from the Guild/September 2020
© Can Stock Photo/sonyae
(Top and bottom) By being in front of behavior and making sure they have a plan in place, trainers can anticipate what their animals are likely to do in each situation
