01/11/2022
Very good points:
“Nice dog. It’s a shame [they’re] not with someone who could do more with [them].”
This painfully casual exchange has been living rent-free in my head for a number of months now for a few reasons; the primary one being the audacity, but beyond that, the commonplace of the underlying sentiment in sport training.
A half-hearted compliment (of a genuinely contented, happy, and accomplished team), delivered with a heavy implication of wasted talent.
We talk a lot about dogs satisfying their innate genetic drives, but what often gets lost in the demand to do more, be more, and strive for more (in the work or otherwise), is the animal husbandry part of dog ownership and the mutual enjoyment of the other being at each end of the leash. This part of the conversation acknowledges that all other needs being met, our dogs have been domesticated to be our (individual) companions. What that fulfillment of drive and expression of mutual enjoyment may look like will be unique to each team, and no two teams will have the same scope and depth in their individual journey.
Talent is subjective. And a waste of talent - even moreso.
Where contentment is present at the root of the relationship, as long as the dog is fulfilled and happy and the owner enjoys their dog, all else should not matter. That alone is enough.
📸:
