As a softball coach, as part of my not allowing my ego to guide my leadership, humility was my friend. I knew very well that I was not really experienced when I began so I needed to seek information. I wanted solid and science based information that was going to give my teams the best experience in their participation of the game. No matter what level they were playing. This took me to education and certification.
Through my coaching career, I tried to exercise humility and remain a student of the game. I was open to theories and new information and would assess it to my situation. If it was good I said thank you and put it to use. If it did not match then I would say thank you anyway. I was also open to feedback from the players. They are the ones playing the game and know what works best for them in some situations.
Coaching with Humility
With Rylee, I try to keep the same outlook. I feel like humility will keep me up on the science and keep me focused on what Rylee needs. Raising a puppy is a very personal thing. For all of us. Some might even relate it to raising a child. I know it is definitely not the same. For someone who has not had children or experienced raising a child, it is easy for us to look at it in similar ways.
When we are coaching Rylee, we have ideas of how things should be done by watching YouTube videos and reading articles. But the truth is, we actually might not know everything. When we raised our first pup over 15 years ago, we had people coming at us from all angles about how we should train her and how to make her stop biting us and being a little terror. We did learn a lot then, but we actually cant even remember much of it now. It was over 15 years ago after all.
This time, we are using our trained resources in our raising of her. And it seems to be going well. There are some areas where we have ideas on how to do things and some of them are successful. However we need to recognize when the answer is to call in the big guns. That would be the person we refer to as our dog trainer. She has much more experience than we do, and is actually professionally trained and certified in positive reinforcement training which is what we want for Rylee.
Listening To Rylee
This can be a hard task for some. Some might disagree, but this also requires humility. I believe though that she will give us signs of how the activities are effecting her. She will often use her ears to communicate. They will be relaxed which means she is good, they will go out to the side which means she is ready to go, or they will be straight back which has 2 signals. She is either being happy submissive and wagging for attention or she is stressed. The stressed part is often accompanied by her ready to go body stance and her chest up if she is lying down. This is just my interpretation at least. I have asked her many times if I am right but she still has trouble using her words.
when we are out or working on a skill, I also need to recognize when Rylee is tired and needs to take a break. She is telling us “hey, can’t we just stop”. This might be by showing signs of crazy or biting at things, or biting the leash when we are out for a walk. We don’t knee to keep pressing because we want to get it done. We will get much further if she is calm and energetically available for learning.
We also need to adhere to our vet guidelines. They are the professionals. We have been informed that she is not ready for a 10K hike every day at 11 months old. We need to wait until she is at least 2 years old for more regular vigorous activities. Especially because she was spayed at 8 weeks which can have an effect on her growth plate and bone growth development. This is what our vet said so we are going to keep on there recommendations.
The Reality
We don’t know all tings and sometimes we don’t even know some things. This requires humility. Especially when it comes to coaching Rylee. For her best success, we need to be her best coaches. This means using all of our resources and remaining “a student of the game”