Case Examples
Rex the Dog
Jaap and Jannet are friends of our Dutch colleague Arie and his wife
Jeanne. Jaap and Jannet own a very large and sometimes ferocious
dog called Rex. Rex is half Rottweiler and half Alsatian—not the
sort of beast you’d care to meet unleashed in a dark alley!
The Alsatian sheep–dog part of Rex liked rounding people up and
herding them into a flock. So when guests, such as Arie and
Jeanne, arrived at the house, Rex would eagerly wag his tail and
usher them into the sitting room with the others. This was all very
well until anyone wished to leave. This would upset the poor
mongrel deeply—sheep were leaving the flock. Rex would bark and
snap and pounce quite ferociously, terrifying the most unflappable
guests.
To overcome this unsettling behaviour, Jaap would chain Rex to the
entrance–hall radiator. Rex would strain at the leash every time,
barking and snarling, until the day he pulled the radiator off the wall
and took a big bite of poor Jeanne’s arm through a heavy winter
coat, bruising her badly.
Horrified, Jannet insisted the dog had to go. Jaap determined to try
again. He sunk strong 20-millimetre steel bolts right into the
brickwork and used heavier chains to make sure Rex never bit their
guests again. That helped, but Rex still snarled and barked. The
dog “just didn’t get it.” (Sound familiar?) Jaap pled for patience:
“Surly if Rex is thwarted enough times he will give up and comply.”
That was their hope.
Meanwhile, Rex continued to terrify guests as they dared to leave.
Arie could see that Jaap and Jannet's hope was costly, unsustainable
and ineffective. As an adept practitioner of Minimalist Intervention,
Arie saw how Jaap’s common-sense response only served to feed
Rex’s “resistance to change.” Arie used his Interchange training to
craft a different approach based on dispassionate observation and
fresh analysis that didn’t rely on hope, strength, training or
extraordinary effort.
So, as Arie and Jeanne got ready to leave the next time they were
round to dinner, Jannet got their coats and Jaap prepared to chain the
barking dog. Arie said: “Don’t chain him up; just give me the lead
and leave him to me.” Arie then grasped the brass handle of the
lead and said to Rex, "Come on Rexie, Walkies" Rex happily
wagged his tail, panted gleefully and looked dotingly up at Arie.
Arie and Jeanne walked Rex to their car and then Arie handed the
lead to Jaap. They said their goodbyes and drove off. Jaap took
Rex for a stroll around the garden, went back into the house, and
proceeded to start figuring out the most minimalist way to get rid of
those unsightly bolts and redecorate the entrance hall.
Here we have Minimalist Intervention in a nutshell.