TOT THE TEACHER

We attended a Social Media Course at the weekend which was held on a friend’s sheep farm. I know, a strange place to hold a Social Media Workshop, at least it wasn’t held in a field. It was actually held in a fabulous building on the farm called Shepherds Barn.
Anyway I digress. Whilst we were there we met our friend Michelle’s fabulous Sheep Dog who is called Tot. We were very excited to meet Tot as although we have worked with him telepathically several times, this was the first time we had actually met him in the flesh so to speak!! At the end of the day, we were all sat around the table chatting when Michelle told us the story of how Justine (our Social Media Instructor for the day) had tried to get Tot to herd some sheep for her. Justine had given him the commands and Tot ignored her, so Justine tried again, and again Tot ignore her. At this point Michelle said to Justine “Tot is taking the mickey out of you, give the command like you mean it.” So Justine tried once more unsuccessfully, again Michelle said, “He’s really taking the mickey now!” At his point Justine really put some authority into her voice and Tot did as he was asked.
This conversation started me thinking. Quite often we are so quick to think the negative of our animal’s actions, me included sometimes! What was Tot really doing? Was he taking the mickey, or was he not reacting because he wasn’t used to working with Justine, or was it that Tot was teaching Justine to step into her own power and use authority in her voice when the situation calls for it. I’ll let you decide. But, my point is that we should stop and think before assuming that our dogs are acting in a negative way. They may simply be trying to show or teach us something. Thank you Tot.