Technology and I don’t mix well. Sometimes I think the internet pixies just hate me. And if I meet a technology glitch I can guarantee a spiral of frustration that often ends with me blowing a fuse…
My computer was running slowly. I’ve bought a great programme called Clean My Mac so I used it to run a scan. It showed I was nearly out of memory. So I ran the programme to search for things it could get rid of to free up the memory. It came up with several options. I had a look – lots of files with odd names made up of letters and numbers. So I deleted them all…
The next day things weren’t working properly. I couldn’t open some documents and my email was playing up. A restart solved the first problems, but my email would just not work – the computer kept taunting me to re-enter the password.
After doing that about eleven million times, I gave up and did what I usually do when faced by a technological frustration – rang Gareth. He’s really patient with my incompetence, bless him, and we tried several things including changing the password, but nothing worked.
Eventually I had to contact our Tech Genius for support. By this time it was around 7pm and I had friends coming round at 8pm. I was getting somewhat more than tetchy.
Himself chose that very time to want to unpack the bird food delivery. He and Daughter no. 2 opened the boxes but needed advice where to put the contents. I was torn between needing to sort the email problem and answering their queries.
And I ran out of patience and ended up screaming at Himself. Daughter no. 2 quickly made herself scarce and Himself and I completed unloading the bird food in a sulky silence.
Certain things like computer problems really get me riled. And in that state, I’m likely to lash out at other people.
Frustration is a common cause of arguments between owners and dogs too. In this case it’s often due to a lack of understanding – a mistranslation, or miscommunication, or incomprehension of the other’s language, which create a build up of stress and tension.
Learning how to speak dog is a skill which can be learnt. We start the process during our Perfect Pet courses. Details and booking can be found here: https://www.downdog.co.uk/PerfectPet
If I’d understood computers more I wouldn’t have snapped at Himself.
If you understand your dog more you won’t need to get cross with them.
Ask us for help if you’re struggling with your dog.
Keep training
Carol
PS I said sorry and we did make it up afterwards – and the Tech Genius sorted my email problem, I’m glad to say.