December 2021: It’s Goodbye…
I knew there probably wouldn’t be a good time to land back in your world and a Sunday morning felt like as good a time as any.
It’s time to explain where the last few months have taken me and, more importantly, where Canine Perspective CIC is heading now.
In many respects, it is goodbye from me.
The last few months have forced me to stop, for obvious reasons. Canine Perspective CIC was all about in-person work and that was no longer an option. Rather than try and pretend we could simply replicate what we do online, I took a different path, I pawsed.
Since Canine P launched in 2014, I have been lucky to have had opportunities to take it in numerous different directions. Some worked, some didn’t, but both the successes and failures have led me to where I am now.
Over the last year, all I could think about was how I could bring Canine P back. Then, I was asked by a wise man whether I actually wanted to bring it back at all.
It was a brave question and my automatic response was ‘of course I do!’
But, that wasn’t 100% true.
If I stop, would that mean I’ve failed?
If I let it go, what would that say about me?
So many people have supported me along the way, what would they think if I, essentially, gave up?
The last year has been a rollercoaster of emotions, to say the least. There have been days when it just felt like too big a mountain to climb to start from scratch, again.
With the help of a team of incredible people I have been supported, challenged and encouraged to emerge from this nightmare year in a way that aligns with who I am. I have learned (ok, I’m still learning…!), to ditch all of the, mostly self-imposed, expectations and remember why I started Canine Perspective CIC in the first place.
To be completely honest, there are elements of Canine P that I don’t want to bring back. So, I won’t. There is one particular element that still lights a fire within me and it probably won’t come as a surprise, dear reader, to find out what that is.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to introduce you to the all-new and improved Canine Perspective CIC and you can decide if it’s something you’d like to stay connected to. There will be elements that will disappear but fear not, I have people to introduce you to who can fill the void. The biggest change is that there won’t be any more dog training/behaviour work, it’s goodbye from me! All of the resources and training guides we have will be available, free of charge, and I will share the information about where to access everything next week.
Before I leave you to your Sunday, I want to say something about Canine Hope. It’s the reason we exist and again, being completely honest, it’s the one element of what we do that has kept me going over the last year. We exist to work with survivors of sexual violence with the help of our canine co-tutors. It’s what we do best and it has formed the basis of every conversation I have had about what I want to do, moving forward.
Letting go of the areas that are no longer in alignment with what I want to achieve has allowed more space to develop new ideas, all centred around the notion of inspiring a new ‘breed’ of leaders; authentic, representative and courageous. I believe that people who have experienced adversity can change the world for the better and I know that dogs who have experienced adversity can change the world for the better.
Thank you for reading this and I’m excited to share the reimagined Canine Perspective CIC with you.
Marie x