I’ve almost forgotten with all the rain we’ve had, but we had some good weather last week.
Daughter no. 2 and I were sitting outside with our cups of tea one day while Gus nosed round the fountain on the centre of our yard.
Said fountain is my pride and joy. It’s a heavy block of coloured stone carved in an unusual shape – an asymmetrical curved block of stone with a raised section round two sides at the top. Water comes up through a pipe in the hole in the centre and trickles down the sides. There’s also a small light at the top of the pipe so it looks lovely at night too.
For the past three years it hasn’t worked at all due to a break in the wiring (possibly caused by mice), but last month I finally persuaded Himself to find an electrician to fix the problem.
Daughter no. 2 had not seen the fountain working before, so I turned it on. There was an initial burst of water, then for three seconds the water trickled out as expected. But then it stopped and there was a strange grinding noise. I quickly turned it off and we went to investigate.
By dint of experimentation, daughter no. 2 discovered that if she pushed the central pipe to one side, the fountain worked perfectly, but if the pipe was even slightly off this line the water didn’t come through and we got the strange noise.
So we found a small stone, used it to jam the pipe into the required position – and it’s worked well ever since.
Sometimes the smallest things can solve a major problem.
That’s often the case in dog training.
Last weekend a client at our Perfect Pet class was despairing about her puppy continuing to pull. We made one small change to what she was doing and it solved the problem.
It was the same with another client and recall. Her dog came back every time she called – unless there was another dog around. We found the thing she needed to do to get her dog back every time, even though another dog was only a few yards away.
If you’re getting frustrated with a training problem you’re struggling with, come along to one of our Perfect Pet courses – see the website for details and to book.
We’ll find the small thing you can change to have a big impact.
Keep training
Carol