You would?
Here it is:
“If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re right.”
Why do I think that that is the best advice I ever heard? It’s simple really. You see, I have worked with thousands of dogs and their owners. Working with that many dogs and owners, you come into contact with a lot of different kinds of people.
True story – no too long ago I was teaching an obedience class at a local shelter. Right from the beginning one student began telling me why her dog would not do the commands. She informed me that her dog was the only male in the room full of females, and that’s the reason why her dog would not perform.
I proceeded to let her know that there were two other male dogs in the class.
She then told me that her dog would not do the commands because he was young and would not pay attention. I took her dog to personally work with and went through the commands, showing her that her dog would pay attention.
The following week she came to class and gave her dog the command “down” in German. She then gave the command in English; she then switched back to German. I walked over to her and said that she was going to confuse her dog by switching languages.
She let me know that she wants her dog to learn the commands in English, German, and Portuguese. THREE LANGUAGES!
I don’t know why, but she wanted to come up with reasons why her dog would NOT perform the commands. She was convinced that she had a bad dog and came up with some unbelievable excuses to try to prove it.
That is one of the most extreme cases I have ever dealt with, but it goes right back to the statement I shared with you at the beginning of this article – “If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re right.”
All the best,
Eric
