People Skills

Question 1

List 3 silent acknowledgement signals and explain what they indicate

Answer 1

These let your client know you are paying attention/listening.

Examples include:
- Smiling
- Nodding
- Thumbs up
- Leaning forward
- Arching eyebrows
- Pursing lips
- Taking notes

Question 2

Make up 3 positive comments for when everything is going wrong for a student

Answer 2

1. Slow progress is still progress
2. You showed up here today for you and Fluffy, and for that you should be very proud of yourself!
3. This gives us a starting point, and we can start our progress from here

Question 3

List three things that have made you angry in a past class?

Answer 3

1. People talking over the instructor / not paying attention or listening
2. Client being rude/shoving their opinion down my throat
3. Feeling like I was not receiving individualized attention for my pet during the appointment time

Question 4

List 3 different strategies to diffuse your anger over points listed in the last cue card

Answer 4

STOP technique
1. Signal:
Start to recognize the signs / body language you exhibit when you start to become upset or angry
2. Take control of your own emotions:
Positive self-talk, keep yourself calm and feel good
3. Opposite:
Do the opposite of whatever your ‘signals’ are
(4. Practice!)

Question 5

Make an analogy (a comparison to illustrate a concept, using a different subject matter) for an important lesson you teach in class

Answer 5

The bucket analogy for teaching the concept of a dog’s threshold in a situation: Your dog’s threshold is the bucket being full. Throughout the day, or even throughout a walk, your dog experiences many different things that it will interact with/react to during this time. Each of these interactions or “things” for lack of better term, start to fill your dog’s bucket. It can be used as measure of stress control and an indicator of how a reactive dog may be doing in a situation. When the bucket “overflows,” we may see behaviours including but not limited to barking, lunging, growling, biting, snapping, cowering, shivering/shaking, staring, salivating, thrashing (aka “reactivity”)

Question 6

Make a plan to stop talking during your class demos

Answer 6

1. Define my expectations in explicit detail
2. Start having students practice the desired modelled behaviour
3. Teach the consequence(s)
4. Teach it for real
5. Continue to define expectations in small chunks

Question 7

When listening to radio/TV, take note of a negative, unhelpful statement. Think of ways to convey the necessary information in a more positive tone:

Answer 7

NEGATIVE statement: “Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant and die!”
POSITIVE statement: “There are many forms of contraception that are safe and effective if you choose to have sex.”

Question 8

Which is an example of Thomas Gordon’s “active listening technique?”

A) While you speak, move around a lot to keep your student’s attention on you
B) Repeating in your own words what the client has told you
C) Ask for more details after every point the student makes

Answer 8

B) Repeating in your own words what the client has told you

Question 9

Direct warnings, interrogation, and probing is

A) Apt to be a roadblock to further communication
B) Repeating in your own words what the client has told you
C) Ask for more details after every point the student makes

Answer 9

A) Apt to be a roadblock to further communication