Two, Four, Six, Eight - Are You a Good Teammate?
Jul 22, 2025
Is there someone in your life who’s difficult to manage or difficult to be around? All isn’t lost, and while this article may seem off the topic of people, I promise you it isn’t.
Think about the Siberian Huskies you’ve seen on social media or known in real life. What are the words that come to mind? Loud? Sassy? Wild? Goofy? Untrainable?
(It’s not just Siberians that can behave like that. Any dog can become a brat when they’re allowed or even encouraged to be bratty. People, too.)
Would you be surprised to learn that Siberians are smart, they are great companions, are generally fairly quiet, and they are exceptionally trainable? Yeah, that would probably surprise most people, too.
I’ve loved Siberians for most of my life. I got off to a rocky start with the first one, because I let him behave like the ones you see on social media. By the time he was 7 months old I was looking for anyone who knew how to successfully live with the breed because I was failing miserably. My veterinarian introduced me to people in a local Siberian Husky club, and I learned how to be a good dog owner.
The secret, it turns out, is to be their teammate as well as their leader.
Most dog breeds came into being because humans wanted the dog to perform some sort of job. Through the decades and centuries of selective breeding, the dogs of each different breed developed distinct traits – hunting dogs like to point, flush, retrieve, and swim, herding breeds like to round up flocks or herds, and sledding breeds like to work together while they run all day. Dogs and humans became teammates in their respective tasks. Even the flock guardian breeds, dogs generally left out with their flocks or herds to keep predators away, work as part of a team. The humans keep tabs on the guardians, and there’s usually more than one guardian per flock.
What I learned from the members of the Greater Washington Siberian Husky Club was how to be the teammate my dog needed, and it was fairly easy to step into my new role. Turns out, Aleks wanted a teammate and a leader – the change in him in just a couple of weeks of consistent leader/teammate training was both astonishing and lasting.
It’s been 40+ years that I’ve shared my life with Siberian Huskies. There have been fifteen of them so far, and you could say I’m as addicted to dog sports as I am to Siberians. Those fifteen dogs earned more than 70 titles and there will be more because my current Siberian, Kacey, loves to train and loves to work.
The only way she resembles any of those wild-child social media Siberians is that she does howl. Now and then. Sirens set her off, and she has a beautiful tenor voice. I can live with that.
What does this have to do with being around or managing a difficult person?
Your first order of business is to understand that it’s a “you” problem as much as it is a “them” problem. You have either tolerated, allowed, or maybe even encouraged the behavior you now find problematic. Think about how much interaction you want to have with this person. Next, decide which behaviors you would rather not deal with when you’re around them. Then, decide how to help the difficult person understand why that behavior isn’t serving them very well, and offer alternatives to their obnoxious behavior.
This is how you become their teammate as well as their leader.
It's easier with dogs – training treats help a lot. It’s possible with people, too. Knowing what’s important or valuable to the other person is the key to helping them become more socially acceptable.
Or you could just whip out your phone, shoot video of them misbehaving, and threaten to post it on the socials if they don’t shape up. Hey, whatever works!
Wags,
Sandy Weaver
The Voice of Wagaliciousness
#success #leader #lawofattraction #dogtraining #conformation
