The “Honeymoon Period”
My Ideal Client Copyright©2012 by Karyn Garvin
You could think of this as a love letter of sorts, but instead of attracting a perfect soul mate, I’m looking for …
My Ideal Clients:
Are almost always looking for solutions to help them with a new dog:
- Many have recently acquired a puppy.
- Many have adopted a dog from a rescue organization.
Most of my clients have owned dogs before. But for some, this is their very first dog … a dream come true.
Many of my clients are starting over after having to say goodbye to a former dog, possibly one of the great loves in their lifetime. Starting over is so very hard. It is hard for the new dog, too, as the previous dog was a very tough act to follow. The owners know they shouldn’t compare, but they do. They want to love this new dog just as much, but that kind of love doesn’t happen overnight. They appreciate my understanding and help through the early stages of this new relationship.
My ideal clients have oftentimes forgotten how demanding a new puppy can be. The last dog, more often than not, was a mature senior when it transitioned. Not only do they not remember the former dog ever having been this difficult but they are worried that there may actually be something wrong with this new dog.
My ideal clients see this new dog as different and perplexing.
My ideal clients’ circumstances may have changed:
- Sometimes they are in a new phase of life themselves, which requires new ways of dealing with things.
- One person may be a new mother and this is the first time she has had a puppy and a toddler.
- Another person may have been single before but is now in a relationship, with a partner to consider. Perhaps other dogs, too!
- Then there’s the couple that always had children around to help them raise the new puppy, but now they are retired and their children have grown and have families of their own.
- Many clients have retired recently and are looking forward to doing things with their dog that they were unable to do before. They may want the dog to travel with them, or perhaps they want the dog to volunteer with them as a therapy dog.
- Others had raised their previous dog at a home where they had land for the dog to run on and just be a dog; now they have moved into town and they need to walk the dog and manage it differently.
- Many owners have trained dogs before but it was a long time ago. They, too, have the sense that much has changed in the dog training industry, and they are trying to sort through all of information that is out there.
- Some of them acquired a new dog through no planning of their own. They have to get past that, on top of everything else.
My ideal clients are all human beings interested in learning how to teach, lead and manage a dog.
My ideal clients believe that we learn as much from our mistakes as we do our successes, and probably more.
My ideal client believe in using rewards as well as consequences when necessary.
My ideal clients are familiar with the road less traveled and know the benefits of taking it.
Sometimes they are humbled by the fact that they have to take time to earn their leadership. They may have thought they were just entitled to it. Learning to teach requires behaving in a patient manner. Many of my ideal clients had former self-talk that declared, “I don’t have patience.”
The mechanics of dog training require a certain degree of coordination and learning new conditioned responses. Many of my ideal clients have to overcome their former self-talk of, “I’m a klutz and I’m no good at this.”
Being a great teacher can mean stepping up but leaving temper behind. Anger shows up a lot in dog training. My clients (like myself) learn how to manage it, and find that skill rewarding in all aspects of life.
Human beings are often afraid of stepping into whoever it is they need to be. All human beings are full of emotions, and being a great teacher oftentimes means being who you need to be for someone else … regardless of whether it comes naturally or not.
This is a lot to learn, but once again, when we grow as teachers we grow as humans.
My ideal clients absolutely love watching me train their dogs.
My ideal clients are eager to learn.
They trust me to lead them where they want to go.
They are inspired by me … and many of them do love me.
They love the fact that I care as much about them and their life as I do their dog.
They agree with the way I approach their situation and they appreciate my ability to take an integrated approach.
My ideal clients have been touched by God’s love, if by no other source than a dog.
My clients love hearing my stories about the divine’s presence in my life.
My clients are open.
My ideal clients are committed to the outcome. They are willing to be coached and make the changes necessary to get there.
They are willing to accept a new way of looking at their situation. They feel enlightened and relieved.
My ideal students are ready for this teacher to come.
After people work with me they have new skills that they will take with them forever. They now have a dog which is filling a need in their heart, and their lives are more harmonious. Their very self-esteem has been bolstered because they were successful in accomplishing something they once had no idea how to master. They are a little stronger in their faith that everything does indeed happen for a good reason. They have heard over and over again to trust their own intuition. They have learned that intuition is how the universe speaks to us. They are not alone, and hopefully, they have also learned to have faith in a life hereafter.
I remember hearing Barbara DeAngelis say that wisdom is a digested form of information. I believe that my experience brings with it a lot of wisdom. My ideal clients are grateful for it.
My first experience in knowing that God is everywhere.
At the age of nine I began my first journey into one of my life’s most transforming experiences. My father was working for Firestone tires in Des Moines, Iowa and applied for a position overseas. He was accepted, and received an assignment to, of all places, Bombay, India. So we packed up and moved there in 1963.
For a kid, one of the advantages of going to school in India is that almost every other week there was a day off from school to celebrate one of India’s religious holidays. It was on one of these days off that mother and I set out with our driver to go shopping. We had only driven a short way when we found ourselves stuck in traffic and in the midst of a sea of people celebrating: millions of people parading beautiful statues of the Gods they worshipped through the streets. They were all headed towards the same destination, which was to release these beautiful statues to the sea. Most would walk with their statues out into the ocean as far as they could go, while other, more affluent people, were in boats which could travel out farther to release their precious symbols of their faith, a gift of recognition to their Gods.
I remember looking at my mother as we sat in the back seat of the car. I was puzzled because of what I had been taught in the church where I had grown up in Des Moines. I had always heard that you had to believe in Jesus Christ to enter the kingdom of God.
So, as I looked at these millions of people who were celebrating a different faith honoring different Gods, their Gods, I had to ask my mother, “Mom, since these people don’t believe in Jesus Christ does that mean that all of these people are going to hell?” My mother looked at me and then looked back at the multitudes of people celebrating. She shrugged her shoulders in an “I don’t know” fashion while shaking her head. But I got my answer! I knew in that moment that there was a whole lot more to religion than what I had been taught. I knew that worshipping God was what was right, and that each of us learns about God through different means. It was then and there that I came to understand the meaning of “God is everywhere!”
