What was I so worried about anyway???

Well, simple fact, I knew my interview went well with the dog walking place. My interviewer and I have had too many fabulous conversations for it to have gone otherwise! Of course I was worried and freaked out for nothing because she hadn't called me when she said she would.

(a) I do still feel that wasn't the best way for her to handle things, especially with someone so new to dealing with their company, and with the front desk girl not having all the information.
(b) She explained VERY well to me what happened and why I hadn't heard from her until late Tuesday afternoon (instead of "by noon on Monday."

All that said, I got the job!!!! I went in yesterday for orientation, filling out paperwork, etc, and a couple hours following someone on 3 of her walks. It was good to be able to observe some specific processes, get some reminders on some common sense things, and to see someone with a different style of handling rambunctious big dogs than I would.

My office manager and I had a good laugh about that later, as my style is much closer to hers than to my trainer. Amazingly enough, the trainer reported back that she was concerned at HOW disciplined I am with dogs! Her style is some of "let 'em do whatever they want, we're here to show them a good time." My style is more "Let's have fun, get the dogs some exercise, but they need to know that when I'm here, I'm the boss. NOT them!"

I generally prescribe to the Cesar Milan method of dog handling. It's all about human training, not dog training, and the dog just has a clear understanding that you are the Alpha-Dog and "Pack Leader," as Cesar would say. When a dog knows who is in charge, they happily comply (typically) and are much more content with knowing that they're being given clear orders. My version of it is basically, "You do what I want you to do, and then we can do what you want to do!"

Well, now I'm off to day two of training!!! I'm told if I can be half the pet care professional this woman is, I will be doing fabulously in this business. Sweet!!! People need to learn those kinds of comments just make me want to jump higher!