Keeping it simple...

Today I was at a moving sale for a fellow dog trainer and a couple of things popped into my head. One was that I was incredibly lazy and why do I expect more from my clients then I am often willing to do myself. Too many irons in the fire, but a lot of grand plans none the less and 2) keeping access to training simple, along with the exercises we give to our students and clients can go a long way to compliance.

The lazy thing is a completely different blog and I need to come to some self realization before writing more on that. However, the keeping it simple part I can write about since it is so fresh in my brain.

While at my colleague's house I see this silver contraption folded up on the floor of her dining room as I was rifling through her for sale items and I asked her what it was. She proceeded to inform me that it was an exercise contraption for which I have already forgotten its name.

My curiosity of course got the better of me so I asked her how does it work. Perhaps again having grand plans to start exercising again (I am laughing as I write this). It appeared that it should be a simple operation, open it up and away you would go. However, I still have no idea how this contraption works. My friend could not find the video tape that goes with the product.

This made me think about all the gadgets, exercises, theories, etc we try to encourage our clients to utilize and then are befuddled by the fact they don't actually use them or implement our protocols. Often we blame them as being uncommitted or lazy, but in reality they have no idea what we are talking about and are pulled in so many directions the thought of trying to sit and read complex instructions or even watching a DVD seems overwhelming and they simply quit.

As great as all the science is, the gadgets are and game plans seem to be they are only as effective as the people implementing them. So the next time we as trainers offer some intelligent, yet time consuming program to our clients think back to that seemingly simple yet daunting exercise gadget that a moderately intelligent, yet lazy dog trainer still can't remember the name of... Keep it simple, short and fun.