A couple of days ago I shared four videos from our Handling360 students that I thought I may have jinxed. You can check out that post by clicking here. I also gave you a little quiz, to see if you could pick out the “gem” in each video… the gem being the lesson from each handler’s story.

The quiz results are overwhelming… the vast majority of you picked the same gem in each video that I saw.

Momentum, sharing new lessons

The Video Gems

Video One – The first video shared was Jan’s, and the lesson is: Our dogs don’t grab off course obstacles because they want to annoy us… they grab them because they are desperately trying to figure out how to please us.

Video Two – The take away from Louise’s video: A dog who knocks bars in agility is a sign of a need for more clarity not punishment. With new understanding even a dog who formerly struggled keeping bars up can shine in agility!

Video Three – Shelly has shown us: Handling success comes from patiently building layers of learning with the dog you love.

Video Four – Helen’s belief in her dog gives us the gem: Even a severely fearful dog can learn the joys of agility when confidence is built through clarity.

There was some overlap in the gems too. “Handling success comes from patiently building layers of learning with the dog you love” rated highly in each video quiz. This is of course true and something we see in each and every story shared with us by our students. Love and patience and layers of learning bring about remarkable transformations.

The fictional gem also got some votes and comments … you know who you are. 😉

There are so many lessons our dogs teach us, and so many gems that we collect for ourselves. What have your dogs taught you? We would love to read your lessons in the comments below.

decafDeCaff, a great teacher

Today I am grateful for our community and for the love and patience each of you has for the dogs in your life, and for your ability to take what you learn and turn it into your own “gem”.