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Parenting, Educators & Dog Training – Follow the same strategies for success

If you are a parent, teacher, or dog trainer, all of these responsibilities are fulfilled best by using similar strategies. 

Parents want their children to grow up safe, healthy, successful, and happy. Teachers want their students to be enthusiastic learners that also grow up to combine their academic skills with great character. Dog-trainers want the dogs they work with to have respectful manners while they feel the love of their owners. 

The framework for all three jobs is pretty much the same. 

Know what you want

Parents, what do you value the most, what are your non-negotiables, and what is the outcome you would like to see for your children.

Teachers, what do you want your students to learn academically? How do you expect them to behave in your classroom? What do you see as your responsibility to build character while they are learning the lessons in class?

Dog-trainers, you want to know what is allowed in the house and when you are out in the community. What is the personality of the dog and how can you balance their personality with what is acceptable for the owners and community.

Set your expectations

Parents want their children to know what the rules are in their family. They need to know if eating cookies before dinner is allowed or not allowed. What are the rules for electronics in the family, what are bedtimes and a whole host of other things depending on the age of the children?

Teachers want to know what their classroom rules are for the best learning environment for the subject they are teaching. Discussing them regularly and posting them in an area that can easily be seen for all students will be a good reminder of expectations

Dog-training is the same except they cannot understand the language you are speaking (though some dog owners believe they are able to understand). The dog must learn if you will allow jumping on you, getting on the sofa, begging at the table, etc.

Agree on consequences

Parents need to express what the consequences are for breaking the rules ahead of time and make them clear to everyone in the house. The expectations and consequences should apply to everyone in the home. Then parents will want to be consistent in applying the expectations and consequences.

Teachers will also want to be consistent with the application of consequences. Whatever our expectations are when applied fairly will be respected by the students. Knowing what to expect takes away the opportunity for manipulation or anxiety of the unknown.

Dog training is pretty basic. The act is committed and this is what happens. The dog learns to do things that result in what they are hoping for.

Recognize teachable moments

Parenting is not just about pointing out what is wrong. Teachable moments can be found when family members are living their values and demonstrating their good character. On the other side of this coin, when mistakes are made a teachable moment is about learning and not about punishment. Punishment is about what has happened in the past, consequences are the results (natural or logical) of the action, discipline is what is hoped for in the future. 

Teachers in the classroom do well to recognize when students have put forth the effort, worked with determination and have shown excellence. These are all teachable moments, just as much as when mistakes are made on a math problem and a student learns what they missed or overlooked. 

Dog training is all about rewards of attention, treats, and walks. If we are constantly yelling or hitting a dog for bad behavior they may begin to behave or not, but it would be out of fear. (so true for parenting and teaching too)

Honor the spirit

Parenting is hard. Between the responsibilities parents have, the costs of raising a family, what others want to tell us is the right way to do it, and the differences in parenting styles that we can have, we must take the time to celebrate all that we believe in and the growth of each family member in being their best.

Teaching is hard. Taking time to honor each other, celebrate successes, appreciating the potential in each student brings joyfulness and unity to the classroom. Each person in the classroom can be seen for the character and virtues they are showing.

Dog training is hard. It deserves having fun with your pet though and appreciating the service they bring to us, always there, excited to see us even if you were gone for just 15 minutes. They are a part of our family that holds no grudges, sees the good in us all the time, and forgives even when we step on their tail.

Real dog trainers can probably tell us more about how raising a dog is similar to raising children. I just know that it is similar, except NEVER crate your child. It just won’t be good for them or you. Do you see other correlations of parenting, teaching and dog training?

I help parents and teachers bring out the full potential and long term success in their children with workshops, seminars and personal coaching. I do not coach on dog training. Joe Van Deuren

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How to help a bossy child

All of us parents want to see our children grow up to be Safe, Healthy, Successful, and Happy. When we see bumps in the road to any of those things happening, we want to fix it, we want to get our child past that hurdle and on to them being their best selves. That was the case for this mom that came to me for help with her four-year-old daughter.

She was worried that she would not have friends or that other children would stop playing with her because when they played her daughter was in her words “bossy”. The mom saw this play out as they went on playdates and her daughter insisted on doing what she wanted to do. She assigned roles to the other children – who would do what, even how they should play the parts. She described how at times she saw her tell others what they should say while they played and tried to control every aspect of the play date. Even at home, she would throw a fit if things did not go the way she wanted.

Unfortunately, when mom talked to her daughter, trying to change the behavior, she told her she was acting “bossy” and described to her daughter how she would lose all her friends if she did not change the way she played with others. By the time she came to me, she felt like she had tried everything without success, and all she really wanted was for her daughter to be accepted, have friends and be happy.

This was not the first parent that had come to me with this concern about their child. Here is what I have learned about every child. They come to us with their own personalities, strengths, weaknesses, temperament, and ways of being. Any parent with more than one child knows that they are all different from the very beginning. Some children are naturally wired to be assertive and persistent. Some like to have control or get very frustrated when others do not see things their way. Every child goes through a developmental process of maturing and if we expect them to leapfrog to great awareness of how others feel, we are not being fair to the child.

With this child, it was obvious that the Mom and Dad were wanting to do what was best for the child. I handed her a list of words, Virtues – The Gifts of Character, and asked her if she were to choose a different word to describe the behavior she was seeing in her daughter, which of these words would it be?

Very quickly she looked at the list and without much hesitation, she chose the first word on the list, Assertiveness. She said, “I guess that I would say that she was assertive.”

The question I asked then put everything into perspective, “Do you want her to be assertive later in life, say when she is a teenager or 21, or 25 and beyond?”

Immediately and emphatically the mom said “Yes! I think that is one of the most important character traits any woman needs as she goes through high school, college and into the work world. Even if or when she gets married, I want her to be able to speak up for herself and express her needs and wants effectively.”

Of course, every parent wants their children to advocate for themselves in all situations. So, it was not the assertiveness that was the issue. For this child and others like her, this assertiveness virtue was simply overdeveloped and not balanced with other virtues.

The problem for the child who keeps getting the message “You are too bossy” is that later in life those words will ring in their ear when situations arise where they are being taken advantage of by others. This can happen socially, personally, or in the workplace. Imagine now for this young lady when she is 17 and a young man is working at taking advantage of her. Do you want her to have the story in her head that she is too bossy, that she needs to be nice, or not rock the boat so loud that she has lost the courage to be assertive and speak up for herself? Or do you want her to be assertive and feel that she has the right to say NO or whatever she needs to say to stand up for herself?

We do not want her to lose her assertiveness. I asked the mom at this point to look at the list of virtues and tell me which virtue she would like to see her daughter use to balance her assertiveness. This took a little longer, but now the mom said I would like to see her balance it with Tact.

I said to her, Great! So now let’s see how we can help your daughter use tact while still being assertive.

One note here is that it did not matter which other virtue was chosen by the mom to help her daughter. This was just about balancing her assertiveness and not shaming it out of her. She may have chosen kindness, patience, tolerance, caring, courtesy or any number of other virtues.

We continued the conversation, looking at specific situations and discussing how to use the language of the virtues to guide her daughter to tactful assertiveness. Now, this parent is working with her daughter, acknowledging her for her Gifts of Character and not shaming her for being the unique person she is meant to be. This is discipline (teaching) at its best.

As I coached this mom through her concern, she learned to use all five strategies of the Virtues Project:

  1. Speak the language of the Virtues
  2. Recognize teachable moments
  3. Set clear boundaries
  4. Honor the spirit
  5. The art of companioning

These five strategies are helpful in every part of our life, whether it is with our children, partner, workmates and even or especially with ourselves. In fact, practicing these five strategies will resolve many problems and issues before they come up. They will create a united family working together as a team that values each other, bringing out the best in our children and ourselves.

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Angst the Movie: a review and some thoughts

Last evening I had the opportunity to see the documentary “Angst, Anxiety is treatable – It is okay to say” at Broadneck High School. First congratulations to Broadneck and the feeder schools for their effort to bring this documentary to both the students, parents, and community. This film “explores anxiety, its causes, effects, and what we can do about it.” The film was very well done and the panel that followed was excellent also in answering questions from the audience.

If you were not able to make it to the showing, I am hopeful that other schools or faith groups will follow the lead of Broadneck. The issue of anxiety is pervasive not just among students, but also among adults including parents and teachers. The fears that plague many individuals range from the fear of inadequacy, not being good enough, rejection, abandonment, and of being judged.

Anxiety may become apparent in many ways starting with a general anxiousness that shows up with worrying excessively about many things and having physical reactions to that worry. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, social phobia, panic attacks or posttraumatic stress disorder are all different levels and types of anxiety disorders.

While it can be hard to understand where anxiety comes from, especially when we see it in very young persons the list is long and there is no one reason. It may include trauma, stress, personality, other mental health conditions, or having blood relatives who have an anxiety disorder. The specific causes are not really known, though some 1 out of 8 individuals are affected and it is commonly thought that the cause may be some combination of factors.

In the end, there were a number of proposed ways of treating the disorder, most of them by professionals, but what struck me the strongest were two things. First was what Michael Phelps said after his visit with a young man who was dealing with anxiety, was a swimmer and looked up to Michael Phelps. His quote was:

“We already have the tools inside of us to get through things.”

This really struck me because when you are working through the anxiety you certainly do not feel that, unless you have the continued support of those around you. So what can we do as non-professionals, as parents and caretakers, who just want to support our loved ones, young or older? Here is what I took from the film and the panel.

  • Learn to Listen
  • Do not judge or rush to judgment
  • Ask questions

The person with the disorder already feels like nothing is right or going right for them. We need to focus on what is good about the person, Listen with empathy and compassion. We are not there to save them or rescue them we are simply there to support them – “we already have the tools inside of us to get through things”.

Ask questions that are open-ended, accept each other for who we are and see the what is right about each other.

As I think about that, it sounds like good advice for all of us – with an anxiety disorder or not.

I highly recommend this documentary for everyone to see.

Want to learn more about how to listen and ask questions that support your child and loved ones, bringing out the best in them and yourself? I help parents and teachers speak a language that acknowledges the virtues of each student. – Joe@balancedlifeskills.com

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3 Questions About Authenticity That Influence Your Children

Integrity is about being true to yourself, saying what you mean, doing what you know is right for you no matter what others are doing or saying. Integrity is about authenticity. But sometimes it is hard to be our authentic self, especially if we believe others are going to laugh at us or make fun of us if we are different than they are.

For kids, it may be the situation of a popular person picking on another person, and we have to decide if we are going to stick up for them like we have told ourselves we would do. It may be wearing the kind of clothes that we like and not going along with how others are dressing. Or it may be stopping ourselves from gossiping about another person when others are engaging in that activity.

It was Shakespeare who said, “To thine own self be true.” Such genuine and wise words. But how do we know what our truth is, how do we know who we are? It takes time and reflection. If we are a parent or an adult, taking the time to choose who we want to be and how we want to be in life is the first step that takes us away from just going from one reaction to another reaction. Continue reading “3 Questions About Authenticity That Influence Your Children”