No One Likes to be Licked by Surprise

Last week I was hanging out at one of my “offices” AKA a local coffee shop when this guy walked in with this dog on-leash and trailing closely behind. Now I am not a huge “Don’t bring your dog into food establishments!” kind of guy, but I do think some of us dog owners might be better about realizing that not everyone thinks their puppy is God’s gift to cute {like ours}.

The owner struck up a conversation with the barista and the dog,  as dogs will do, started wandering and sniffing.

I could see it coming. There was a guy sitting at a table, deeply focused on his laptop, with his back towards the man and his dog. One sniff from behind and the dog laid this slobbery lick right up the arm of the guy sitting at the table. I could barely stifle a giggle as I saw the look on the guys face: first shock at the feeling, then disgust at the dog and finally condemnation towards the owner.

The owner kind of laughed if off and walked out with his hot coffee and slobbery dog.

The lickee looked up and noticed that I had witnessed the whole thing. We made eye contact and he says, “And I am a dog person.”

And I responded, “But no one likes to be licked by surprise.”

So basically what happened is that someone who, probably in any other circumstance, would have been friendly and open to playing with the dog was turned off by the dog and the owner simply because he was caught off guard and surprised by the action.

Do I really need to point out the parallels to leadership?

Surprises, no matter how good the idea is or how cute the delivery method, will most often be met with resistance.

Carry on.