The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - 3 Life Lessons from my Alpha Dog Gringo | Foundations Friday 79

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

On January 5, 2023, my wife and I decided to put our dog Gringo down. He fought a good fight against Lyme Disease and old age, but it was time. This is never easy. We've had to make this decision twice before, and each time it broke our hearts.Gringo was a true Alpha Dog. He loved humans and set the tone around other dogs. In this episode, I'm sharing three life lessons I'll carry with me that Gringo taught me.Walk with confidenceControl your emotionsKeep up the fightGodspeed and RIP Gringo. We know you're leading the pack in Heaven.

Hey everyone, welcome to Foundations Friday 79, three lessons I learned from my alpha dog Gringo. Recording this with a heavy heart as Gringo's gone to the big pasture in the sky, we had to make the tough decision to have him put down this week, yesterday in fact. But I learned a lot from that dog. We adopted him from my family. And he lived a very good life, a long life. But for those of you who have lost pets, you know it's hard.

It never gets easier. Ever. And he just found his way into our heart. And he's a beautiful boy. And we will miss him forever. But we'll also take the lessons from him. And these lessons are particularly because he was such an alpha dog. He had a big head, big ears like wolf ears, huge paws.

He was so confident and strong. And he just pushed so hard right up to the end. So in this short episode, let me share what I've learned and hopefully what you can learn and all of us really and what I hope and I know my other dog, my younger dogs learned from him. The first thing is to walk with confidence. Gringo knew where he wanted to go. He knew the toys he wanted. He knew the bed he wanted to lay on and so he did it. He just did it.

There was no fighting. He just gave the other dogs a look. They moved because they knew he was it. There was no fighting. He just gave the other dogs a look. They moved because they knew he was it. Gringo worked cattle. He was a cowboy's dog for years. And he worked out in the fields with animals that were 1,000, 2,000 pounds. And here's this dog, maybe 70 pounds. But ferocious.

Learned from his mama how to get after those cows how to herd them so if you've seen videos of border collies herding cows that was gringo a big strong confident dog and super smart and so he walked with confidence he wasn't worried about other dogs he wasn't worried about people but he was respectful he was safe dog he smart. And I think that's something we can carry. It's similar to Jordan Peterson's rule, head up, shoulders back, the way Gringo carried himself, particularly when he was younger and stronger and still did a bit when he was older, was just walk into the room like you're supposed to be there. Walk into the meeting like you know what you're supposed to do because you do. You're in that meeting for a reason. I've been

on a lot of calls or in in-person meetings and a lot of folks maybe are a little more meek or don't have the self-confidence and there could be a myriad of reasons for that. So it is a relatively simple but not easy thing, as Jocko and Leif say in Extreme Ownership, simple not easy, to just change that. Stand up a little straighter, put your shoulders a little back, have this kind of flat affect on your face, this normal face, and just be confident in your answers and in the knowledge that you have. There's a reason you were picked to be part of the team or lead the team or got hired or you're at this class in school or wherever you are in your life. So learn from Gringo and walk with confidence and walk into a room like you're supposed to be there the second thing i learned is to control your emotions and i am an emotional guy sometimes i

get angry too fast when my kids are bickering when i feel one's not being fair i cry i've cried like crazy these past few days i'm good you know anxious sad all the things and i'm not you know i think humans in general men or women should be able to do that, should feel their emotions. But we need to be able to control them. And Gringo, with his confidence, never really showed a lot of emotion. He was stable. And dogs like that. And so when you're more stable, if you have dogs, that's better for your dogs.

But it's also better for people. When we're more stable emotionally, we can relate to be better listeners, be better leaders, make better decisions than when we're all over the place and when we react quickly. And that's something, especially with a teenager and two sons, one that's a tween and one that's 10, you know, trying to get the scoop on who did what when nobody's owning up to it. You can't rush in there like I've done before, made that mistake, and you're emotional. You hear one son and you get emotional because he's upset and you have a bigger son. It's like, you know, wait, I need to slow down, get all the information and make a good decision or provide good guidance and let the kids make a decision, right? We're empowering our kids to make those. But like this number two thing that Gringo taught, like control your emotions when you do it.

And that's just a good thing to do in life. Whether you're a parent, you're a professional, you're an emergency responder. Gosh, that's hard, right? Regulating our emotions when I'm at the scene, when I hear a child holding his dad's hand as we're turning off the ventilator because he's, you know, had cancer or traumatic calls, whatever's happening, it's super hard to do and then to deal with that afterwards. But there's ways to do it. And go listen to the episode with Rhonda Kelly about the All Clear Foundation and other episodes I've got about mental health, the one with Dr. Tracy Marks. And there's ways to regulate it and it makes a difference. Regulate your emotions ahead of time so you don't have to

be going uphill when you're having a problem with them. Certainly not the last thing, but the third thing, just to keep this Foundations Friday episode relatively short, is to keep up the fight. At the end, Gringo had Lyme disease that had ravaged his body. He had lost a lot of muscle. We could feel the bones in his back. His hips didn't have a lot of muscle we could feel the bones in his back his hips didn't have a lot of muscle on him he was coughing and you could tell having just a hard time and confused but he he still wanted to play some he enjoyed those treats those goodbye kisses which the veterinary hospital had so giving him hershey's kisses and peanut butter and it was fantastic but for a few years right and certainly

this past year we've had them he He put up the good fight. When we got him, he couldn't walk good. We got him some steroid shots and some other medicine, you know, glucosamine essentially for joints and other things. And he kept pushing and he would sometimes slip and fall and he would not be able to get up just a couple steps, but then he would chase the ball and he would want to come out and walk and do all these things until he couldn't. But he fought and he fought. And that's inspiring because when we're sad, when we're hurt, when we're injured, when we're recovering, when we lose someone, we have to keep fighting. And life is a fight. It should be a fight. I would love it to be where I slept perfect all the time, where everybody got along.

But you know what? That's not life. That's not life at all, right? And Gringo knew that. Gringo fought. He said, I'm going to be here. I'm going to still throw out this alpha vibe. I'm going to walk in confident.

I'm going to control my emotions. But you know what? I might fall down every now and then. And I'm going to hack it a little bit and cough. But I'm still going to straight toward his tail like a helicopter. I'm going to twirl my tail. I'm going to have this smile on his face. It looked like he was smiling.

And I'm going to look at you with my big old head in my ears. And just let you know I love you. I thank you all for listening to this episode. For sticking with the KevTalks podcast. Please check out KevTalksPod.com. A lot of good information there from not just me, certainly, from the fantastic guests I've had. Look up mental health, physical health, process people, right, progress. We're still in that game.

In fact, that's the primary game of powering people through industry standards and best practice processes that we talk about with some great guests. I'm going to have a great lineup come up in the next few weeks, months, and hopefully that you all, when you're listening, make progress. And if you have a special dog in your life, like I've had, like we had Gringo, think about what they're teaching you. Think about what you can implement for yourself. And think about what Gringo taught us. To walk with confidence, to control our emotions, and to keep up the fight.

Thank you, everybody, and Godspeed.