The Power of Praise Cary NC

Recently, my relatively settled life has been taken over by a 7-pound Jack Russell puppy named Girlie. Girlie's schedule is now my schedule. My floors are strewn with dog toys and my house has dog crates and dog gates. She's a hurricane. She can outrun and out jump her master. She keeps me going long after I'm tired. The vet warns me she's "highly dominant" and that if I don't soon make my dominance clear, she'll be ordering me off the couch.

So I brought in a respected trainer to train not so much the dog as me. It's been 10 years since I last attempted to inculcate a puppy with the rules and routines of my household. How puppy training has changed! Today's trainer tries to manipulate situations so he or she can praise and reward the dog into doing the right thing. Trainers use punishment only as a last resort. This is what business teachers mean when they talk about "Vitamin P," that is, the power of praise in a business environment, which is said to be five times more effective than criticism in training employees.

With puppies, we accept that training doesn't involve teaching a concept just one time, but repeatedly. And, the puppy trainer says, we must make this learning fun, exciting, and varied. (Yes, I think this applies in your business too. How about using a large chocolate chip cookie to teach financial information? Or building a charity playhouse to review some technical concepts?)

Who's the boss?

Remember that dominance issue? With dogs, you use the "Alph

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