In Weeks 1 to 12 of his young life, your mastiff puppy will learn most of his sensory and motor skills. What he learns about his owner and other humans, interacting with a variety of people, other animals, and even places - these lessons will imprint on his brain, and will probably stay with him for the rest of his life.
It stands to reason, then, to devote as much of your time and energies as possible developing a close and loving bond between dog and owner and family. Get as much physical contact as you can, in play and in rest. All young animals benefit from a structure to their day, so it is good practice to introduce a timetable for your family and the puppy, so everyone gets used to the routine.
Even a young puppy needs grooming, and this is a great opportunity to get close and personal. Have a fixed time for this exercise, and gently brush his coat and wipe his ears. Not every young puppy will welcome grooming, but gentle perseverance will win him over. Never shout or speak sharply at this stage - all communication should be gentle and kind.
You have to introduce the puppy as early as possible to the outside world, while at the same time protecting him from any location, company or situation that might distress a sensitive young animal. Make a conscious decision to visit several locations a week, and introduce your young mastiff to many different people, so that he learns to cope with this strange animal that is Human, and gets used to the noise and bustle of daily life. And of course, see that he also gets to meet other non-threatening animals and dogs.
If at any time you sense that he is getting distressed or fearful, pick him up and gently reassure him that all is right, and try to put him back in the situation so that he accepts that he can cope, that his fears were unfounded.
The puppy will quickly learn to mirror your emotions, so always remain calm and in control, and he will imitate these attitudes. Never lose your temper or shout in anger in front of him.
Often in his third month the young mastiff puppy may go through a "fearful" period of 2 or 3 weeks, when he can easily get distressed. If you experience this, best advice is to moderate his social outings so that you avoid particularly and very noisy or crowded situations.
If you follow these simple guidelines, then your young mastiff will be on his way to being socialized, so that he can be a faithful and confident companion by your side.
Where the performance gap is to do with knowledge:
Coaching cannot really help where a person needs to aqcuire knowledge in order to develop their performance; coaching can not tease out what is not actually there.
For example, it would clearly be absurd for a driving instructor to take a pupil on a first lesson and ask "How might you press those pedals in sequence to bring about some forward movement?" The pupil would have no idea because in the first instance they need some input, some knowledge that they can begin to use and develop.
In such cases we are obliged to adopt a Tell style although we must recognize its drawbacks and look to move towards a coaching style as soon as the people we coach have enough knowledge to become responsible for developing their own learning from that point. Many coaches make the mistake of trying to coach where the development need is one of knowledge and invariably the coaching session breaks down and leaves both parties feeling frustrated and confused by the coaching process.
Where coaching can be useful is in helping people think through for themselves the ways in which they might go about filling their knowledge gaps.
Where the performance gap is to do with skills:
In any sphere of work there will be a body of knowledge needed to perform well in a job and a set of skills necessary to put that knowledge to good use. The key to developing good skills is practise. Say I wanted to develop my skills as a public speaker. I could read numerous books on the subject but I would not begin to become an effective public speaker until I stood up and began to practise the skills of speech variance, positioning, hand gestures, etc.
Coaching can be very useful here as although it cannot replace the time needed for practise it can help people to decide exactly what their practise priorities should be and how they are going to get the most from any practise session.
In trying to develop my presentation skills, I might practise positioning my visual aides and asking audience questions because the books I read suggested these were key aspects of successful presenting. However, my coach may help me realise that in fact my last presentation didn't go as well as I hoped because I ran out of time and was rushed at the end. Much better then, for me to practise pacing my delivery and designing flexible material.
Where the performance gap is to do with attitude:
Coaching comes to the fore as a development tool where individuals have a good level of knowledge and skills but are just not putting them to good use for some reason.
Of course this may be because they have become disillusioned with the work or the organization and are looking for an opportunity to leave. If this is the case it might be best for both parties to part company and perhaps we could offer coaching as a way for people in this position to decide on their next steps.
Quite often though people are not harnessing their knowledge and skills because they have lost sight of what they are trying to achieve or have some limiting beliefs that say 'I'm just not good enough' or 'it's a young person's world these days' or 'they'd never take me seriously' etc.
Coaching is a wonderful remedy to such problems because it quickly enables people to regain focus. Focus means being free form distractions and we focus most easily on what we find compelling. If you've ever watched a child play with a toy they find fascinating or a cat toy with a mouse or an insect or you'll know this to be true.
Some people confuse focus with effort but this is not the case. In fact if we try too hard we tend to get uptight and tired. We begin to develop a fear of failure and our endeavours become totally unenjoyable.
Focus can be easily developed by taking more notice of what we notice. If for example I discover in a coaching session that I tend to lose eye contact with an audience when giving a presentation, then I should try to note how often it happens next time. The likelihood is it will be far less because I will be far more focused.
Hopefully you can see that this is very different to someone suggesting that I 'don't lose eye contact'. Such well-meaning advice will simply increase pressure and probably produce mistakes in other aspects of my presentation.
Focus is a very tenuous thing and we can be distracted quite easily. Especially from things we do not really enjoy (compare reading a novel with a textbook).
Coaching is effective because it works with what the person being coached finds most interesting and promotes ever-deeper levels of focus, and consequently awareness.
Both Brendan Forde & Matt Somers are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Brendan Forde has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Pets and Puppies Dogs. For more information on the Mastiff dog and advice about this wonderful dog visit the website.Let us send you a very gentle course on bringing up and caring fo. Brendan Forde's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.
Matt Somers has sinced written about articles on various topics from Power of Coaching, Career Change and Depression Cure. Matt Somers is a leading voice on coaching in the UK where he writes, presents, trains and consults on all aspects of Coaching at Work. An author and regular conference speaker, he is currently producing a range of resources to help with the people side o. Matt Somers's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.