Pandemic 2020 has brought about many changes in my life. I know it is so easy to focus on the negative, but there are some big positives. The biggest one is that I was able to get a puppy. I now have a 3-month-old Golden Retriever. Laska Penelope arrived just in time for the holiday chaos — Christmas decorating, food preparations and snow. It’s a perfect time to get a puppy. Let the fun —I mean training — begin!

We hired a dog trainer. I know it sounds ridiculous. After all, I have been training people for 20 years in my academic role as well as an industry educator. How hard could it be to train a new puppy? Apparently, harder than I remember. We are currently in private weekly lessons. As we are just ending Week Four of training, this whole process got me thinking how there are really some consistencies between puppy training and employee training.

By no means am I comparing puppies to employees, but there are some similarities in the workplace and the homeplace and how we treat each other and get the results we want. All puppies want to know three things: Who is in charge? What are the house rules? And what is my role in this family — how do I fit in? Unlike with humans, we cannot just verbally communicate these roles and rules with puppies. This is the reason why we are in puppy training. It is all about teaching them the house rules and roles within the household.

I think the same things can be said about employees. All employees want to know three things: Who is in charge and making the decisions? What are the rules we need to be following, or a better way to phrase the question may be, what are my boundaries within the rules? And finally, how do I fit into the company policies and how can I use my abilities and strengths to make things a happier place to work? In a typical workplace, we as employees learn all of this through communication, whether it be onboarding, continuous training or written communication.

Some other similarities are how we communicate these rules. Puppies need consistency, constant praise, proper corrections and yummy treats. There is nothing more confusing to a puppy when there is lack of consistency and the rules change. Also, praise and yummy treats work much better and faster when learning new commands when compared to punishment. We get better results when we focus on praising the good and correcting the bad with kindness than when we use punishment, all while maintain boundaries. My puppy had a food aggression. I was getting really upset with her about it. After a week, we got nowhere. So, we changed tactics. We started feeding her with our hands and giving her treats in her food bowl when we walked by which made her feel more comfortable. She began to understand we weren’t going to take her food away. We created trust and loyalty. It worked, and in just a few days she was done being aggressive with her food.

The same concepts work for me, an employee. We really get better results when we focus on consistency, praise, proper corrections and merit raises. Right? Aren’t these the things that speak to us as employees? They do for me! There is nothing more confusing to me as an employee than inconsistent messaging from administration and upper management. And there are few things that speak more to me than being praised (or getting a merit raise) when I do good things for the company.

Maybe there are some lessons to be learned here. Loyalty, trust, appreciation and establishing boundaries are important to productive employees (and puppies). The way we go about establishing and creating that trust and loyalty and establishing boundaries is so important, especially right now when everyone has high anxiety and lack trust in so many things. We all want to do better and do things the right way for ourselves, our families and our employers. Being kind and building that loyalty and trust makes for a much better workplace environment and puppy home environment.

While writing this blog, the house has gotten very quiet, so I am off to find my puppy and the potential adventure she has created! Laska, where are you girl???????

My lessons from puppy training

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