"You don't know what you don't know."

On first glance, that looks pretty insulting, doesn't it? Think about it, though. It's true.

The minute I start to feel like I know what I'm doing, I go to my lesson, and it reminds me that there's a myriad of things I don't know that I didn't know I didn't know. You know?

I recently ran into someone that frequently shoots off at the mouth about all kinds of stuff she has zero experience in ... like ISDS style trials. She's never run in one. She's never trained with anyone who competes in them. She's never trained dogs to the level that would be required to run in one. Yet she is going to tell me that they (all of the trainers I referred her to) are "all" giving her the cold shoulder, and that the low-priced clinic she just put on with her trainer is every bit as good as a clinic put on by one of the big hats -- even though she's never been to a big hat clinic. How do you convince someone that they don't know what they don't know?

Then there is the whole conformation crowd that likes to talk about what a dog's build should look like in order to perform at its maximum working capacity. How does that work? If they have never even so much as seen a real working dog work (this does not include the lovely cutesy trials the ACK puts on), how do they know what goes into building a good working dog? The show crowd talks about working dogs being "rangey" and diseased because working people don't test for the umpteen things show people do, and yet claim that their boxy overcoated short-legged dogs are built to work. So why is it then that the only dogs on the trial field are the rangey, diseased version? Where are all the "properly built" dogs? How can you build something for a purpose you don't yourself use? I guess you don't know what you don't know, eh?

Another example: Sitting at a stockdog trial. My motto is, "You can't learn anything with your mouth open." So I sit and watch ... and listen. To my right is a novice talking to a big hat. The novice asks the big hat a question. While the big hat is trying to respond, he keeps getting interrupted by the novice who insists on sharing their wisdom with the big hat. The big hat stops talking, and eventually slinks away. The novice is none the wiser. A newcomer takes the big hat's place and proceeds to ask the novice some questions about what is happening on the trial field. The novice proceeds to give the newcomer their profound wisdom, most of which is horribly inaccurate information. But ... you don't know what you don't know, eh?

Witnessing all this makes me very conscious about when to speak and when not to. I am learning a whole lot more with my mouth shut.

Happy tails,
JD