This week
This week I’ve been reminded that Margo, my 17-month-old golden retriever, has firmly entered her stubborn teenager phase. She’s been ignoring recall because the fetch session wasn’t long enough, forgetting her manners and inviting herself onto the sofa.
It would be easy to blame her, but it’s more to do with my wife and me. My new job has changed our routine, and that includes our smallest family member. When I was freelance, I could walk her whenever I liked and work from the sofa. Now I’m in more meetings, some of them back to back, so her walks have to be built into the schedule. We’ve also become lax with the rules, ‘I was just about to invite you up’ is not the same as Margo being invited onto the sofa.
The fix won’t surprise other retriever owners: food. Bringing obedience training back into our days has helped almost instantly. I’ve also started being proactive with enrichment. If I have a long call, I freeze her breakfast, and all the sniffing and hard work keeps her busy and tired.
One thought
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about basics, in Margo’s training and in the empathy step of any project. I wrote about it at more length in my Byker Wall post. Byker’s residents were listened to before anything was designed, and what they asked for is still there today. For me, it’s a lesson in understanding user needs and nailing the basics of the craft.
When something looks wrong, it’s tempting to diagnose it and jump straight to the cookie cutter fix. Margo’s behaviour looked like a dog problem, but it was a change in our routine that I’d overlooked. Products are the same. Step back, get to know your users, and ask who it was built for before asking how to fix it.