Pivoting in the Pandemic Talk

Raising Canine has given me an opportunity to speak about how dog trainers are pivoting during the pandemic. Yes, I've had a bit of time to work on this talk, but man - I haven't had a ton of time to practice because every time I sit down to do something, the news changes, the technology changes, my inbox has a list of dog-related issues that change each week.

I could talk about city dog issues all day - and each of the talks I give on the topic has updated information, but the bulk of the substance is the same.

Talking about how Petfinder is Craigslist for puppy sellers? That's a talk I can give in my sleep. I just did a version of it this week and the only thing that has changed was that Petfinder had changed the way the website looked and the navigation was clunky - but websites are living things if you create them correctly, and those changes are minor compared to the changes that could help the placement of millions of dogs every year ---- and on that front, nothing has changed.





But this one - this talk on pivoting during a crisis, a pandemic that is constantly changing, getting worse, affecting everyone in new ways, the news dump feels like a tidal wave pulling me under every morning...the constancy of the inconsistent pivots is what's making this one so hard.

If it's clunky, it's ok. It's ok if it's clunky because the information will undoubtedly change by tomorrow when Sue needs the presentation and will most certainly be totally out of date by Wednesday, the day of the talk.

I'm not worried at all because we are all going through rapid fire adjustments and that, I suppose, is the takeaway. Maybe I'll focus on that?

I hope you are all doing well in your homes if you are home, and you are safe if you are an essential worker. I have had a few clients get sick and luckily, to the best of my knowledge, they are all recovered and doing well. This is impossibly hard for everyone, and I hope you are finding little ways to be ok with everything changing all the time. It will get better, soon.

-M3