My life before dogs
This may not be of much interest to some of you, but if you are curious about Christina Gray and the background of Great Heart K9 (GHK9) dog training and our qualifications, philosophy, and history, then this post is for you!
In our bio, we mention that Christina was a dance teacher and a political science teacher before she was a trainer. Many dog trainers have had previous careers and many even continue to maintain them while also training dogs. These careers can often inform how we train dogs. It may not seem clear that dance and political science can help you train dogs - but let’s have Christina share how they have helped her.
Dance Teacher and Performer
From the age of 10, I began to seriously train in classical ballet and modern dance. Later, I trained in modern or contemporary dance, performance dance, contact improv, and more. As a student, I spent hours practicing movements over and over again. I learned to control my face, breathing, momentum, and body so that I would be able to repeat the same quality of performance over and over again. I developed stamina for repetition, and for mental focus, and for collaborating with others who were also on stage or in the classroom dancing, making music, managing the lights and props. I learned to memorize movement sequences. I learned to improvise and adjust quickly so that the performance continued without interruption even if things were not going as expected. Part of learning to dance is to learn to move through space in predictable patterns even though we are always moving through an unpredictable world. Another part of learning to dance is finding joy and patience in repetitive and potentially boring drills. A beautiful part of dance is learning to speak through movement (not just words) and learning to listen to the body language of others. Dance performance and teaching also helped me learn to be creative and to celebrate the variety of ways that different people with different skills, minds, bodies and experiences can move through the same dance material.
As a dog trainer, we need to be aware of how our body, our face, our tone of voice, and even breathing may be communicating with our dogs. The more consistent and clear we can be, the better we can approach and work with dogs. I still use creative problem solving in my dog training, and I love the calming slow progress we can find in training dogs to perform difficult skills such as wearing a muzzle, or cooperate with nail trims. I use my ability to focus, be precise, and my understanding of body language (dogs’ main language) every time I work with a dog. And, I celebrate the odd, the difficult, the weird, the silly behavior (in dogs and people) as potentially beautiful expressions of who they are and what they can add to the world. I also believe that these expressions can be shaped through practice into collaborative performance and practice that is healthy and fun for the community. That’s want dance training did for me, and that’s what dog training can also do!
Professor of Political Science
coming soon….
