Keeping in Touch

Networking is a wonderful thing. Not only can you enjoy the company of likeminded people, it can be really good for business too. If you are just walking your dog in the local park, then networking and chatting to other dog walkers is a fun and sociable thing to do. You can keep up with all the local doggy gossip (so can your dogs by the way) and important information can come your way. In my local park, someone has been putting down poison for dogs, knowing this can keep your dog safe from harm.
If like me, you are a professional in the dog world, then networking with other trainers, behaviourists, breeders, vets and dog minders and walkers is a really great thing to do. I never see other behaviourists or trainers as a threat to my business. We need to swap ideas, keep in touch, learn from each other, swap news, promote each others' businesses and if you are lucky you will also make friends with likeminded people.
I like to keep up to date with continuing education and training, any individual with a professional skill should do the same. I never stop learning and I am passionate about discovering the doggy world around me, and immersing myself in 'all things doggy' (quite literally sometimes!). I have seen boxers boxing, spaniels spanieling and pointers pointing! No amount of information is too small to lock away somewhere for a rainy day. For instance...
Today I was on a seminar about the different needs that different dogs have, according to their hard wired genetic breeding. Retrievers retrieve...of course. But what were Chow Chows bred to do? (you know the fluffy ones with the black tongues?), well nothing... they were bred to be eaten, as a food source in China - hence the word chow...ugh!