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The 6 Human Needs
As humans we all have needs. When you break down the needs into the most basic and fundamental categories there are only 6. These 6 human needs determine everything in our life, how we value things, how we rate things in order or importance to us, etc.
These 6 human needs also determine how people hire us, the speed at which they hire us and WHY they hire us. The why behind them hiring us is the most important thing here.
But before we can get to WHY people hire us as far as their needs go we need to define why MOST (8 or 9 our of 10 clients) people hire us.
But before we do that, let’s go over why this is important to you as a part of the Wonder Dog Team.
Why This Matters
When we discover the human needs we can determine what is driving their behaviors and decisions. With this info we can use it to tailor training and our sales approach directly to the needs of the client.
If you are a Dog Pro you can use the info here. and in the database to figure out what is most important to train first and what sequence to pick.
If you are an Eval Pro or Eval Pro Assistant you can use this info to help tailor your presentation to speak directly to them and their needs.
Helping VS. Manipulation
What you are about to learn is important and powerful stuff when it comes to human psychology and we want to use this information to HELP people.
In the wrong hands this can be used in a negative way and used to manipulate people and this is NOT the intention of this training.
The intention of this training is to figure out what their needs are and tailor training to them to HELP them and serve them in the best way possible.
Why do families hire us?
Most families hire us because they want their problems to be solved.
I will say that again so that it really sinks in. Most people hire us because they want their problems solved.
Now what are some of the main problems these people want solved?
Jumping
Pulling
Bolting out the door and running off
Eating off the counter
Pottying in the floor
Not listening
And other behaviors of this nature
As you can imagine living with a dog with these type of behaviors can range from annoying to downright terrible to live with. How the client feels about these behaviors can range depending on their behavior standards and their tolerance level.
Now on the surface all these behaviors are annoying and frustrating at some level. But what happens when we take things one level deeper? What do all these behaviors do at their core? They violate one or more of the human needs and it is because of this violation that people hire us.
What are the human needs and how do they pertain to dog training and us as a company?
As mentioned above, there are 6 human needs. Let’s go through them, break them down a bit more and then see how they pertain to dog training.
Certainty
Uncertainty/Variety
Significance/Recognition
Love/Connection
Growth
Contribution
An Explanation of Each Need
CERTAINTY (C)
If certainty is one of your top basic human needs, you need to feel secure and safe about the future.
UNCERTAINTY/VARIETY (U)
People who value uncertainty or variety are people who like change. They typically dislike routines. They may change jobs often. Or try to find new partners. They are always trying new things and wanting adventure.
SIGNIFICANCE/Recognition (s/r)
If significance is among the top two of your 6 human needs, then part of meeting that need includes receiving recognition or being noticed and recognized. This commonly translates into a desire to be seen, heard and listened to – in short, you want to be noticed. You measure significance by what you believe makes you unique compared to everyone else around you. Recognition provides you with a sense of validation that makes you feel seen, special and/or needed. Recognition is a major driving force behind human behavior because it provides us with a measurement system to analyze and track our significance.
Love/Connection (l/c)
If connection/love is your top basic human need, you are constantly seeking out a close relationship with someone or something. This can lead to some incredibly fulfilling relationships, but it can also cause you to sacrifice self-care in order to take care of others or maintain a partnership.
GROWTH (G)
Those whose foremost need is growth are always striving to be better and learn more. They are very good at their jobs, but tend to move on quickly as soon as they believe they’ve reached their full potential. Though their constant striving for betterment ensures they will never be bored, they can err on the side of perfectionism and neglect the rest and relaxation they need to keep stress levels manageable.
CONTRIBUTION (cont.)
The secret to living is giving, and those who experience contribution as one of their top basic human needs know this better than anyone. If you have a need to contribute, you will likely make a big difference in your community. However, you can lose sight of the fact that giving should begin at home and neglect those closest to you as you try to change the world.
What do you think are the needs of our clients hiring us?
After reading that, I hope you are curious to discover what the true needs of our clients are when they are hiring us. What do you think the main two needs are?
How We Uncover Needs In Our Clients
Now you are familiar with the human needs, but how do we uncover these in our clients? We do this by asking questions.
We ask these three easy and simple questions to determine the true needs they want fulfilled by training.
What do you LOVE most about your dog?
What do you like least about your dog the way he is now?
What does a trained dog look like to you?
What do their answers tell us?
Here are some common responses to the questions when we ask paired with the need that is fulfilled by each.
1 - What do you LOVE most about your dog?
The idea here is to figure out what need the dog is fulfilling for them.
How he makes me feel when I get home. (Love/Connection)
How much fun we have when we play.
How much he loves me. (Love/Connection)
He is always up to do something with me.
2 - What do you like least about your dog?
The idea here is to figure out what need the dog is violating for them with their behavior. Here I will use the 6 most common problems, but use this framework with any major issue the owner is having to figure out the need the dog is violating.
Each bad behavior violates at least 1 of these three needs and sometimes even 2 of the three, or all of the three. Bad behaviors violate certainty, love/connection and/or significance/recognition.
1. Jumping
Uncertainty - Jumping can cause uncertainty. Will the dog knock the owner down? Knock down grandma? A Kid? Will jumping cause someone to get scratched and bleed?
Significance/Recognition - Jumping is embarrassing to some people because their dog jumps on their friends. Maybe their friends or family doesn’t like it and shames them for their dog jumping. Maybe
2. Pulling
Love/Connection - It is hard to love something wholly if you are frustrated with it.
Significance/Recognition - It is embarrassing to some if their walking their dog and their dog is dragging them down the street
3. Bolting out the door and running off
Uncertainty - What if their dog gets out and gets hit by a car? What if it runs away and it never comes back?
Love/Connection - This behavior violates this because if the dog runs off, you can’t love it if you can’t find the dog. You also can’t love the dog if it’s dead because it got hit by a car.
4. Eating off the counter
Love/Connection - This behavior violates this because if the dog is eating their food off the counter then they are mad and then they feel disconnected.
Certainty - This violates their need for certainty in a few ways. First, if people cook, they expect their food to be there when they turn around. Second, if they get their food stolen they become the opposite of certain because they have no clue if the dog will become sick. Maybe they need to take the dog to the vet.
5. Pottying in the floor
Certainty - This is violating certainty because most people expect clean carpet. Sure, there are expectations of accidents in the beginning, but overall they expect clean floors. This violates that need for certainty when the dog uses the bathroom on the floor.
Love/Connection - It is hard to feel loving and connected if you are mad and frustrated.
Significance/Recognition - It is embarrassing to some if their commanding their dog and it doesn’t listen.
6. Not listening
Certainty - This is violating certainty because if someone commands their dog, they expect it to listen. By not listening it is violating certainty.
Love/Connection - It is hard to feel loving and connected if you are mad and frustrated.
Significance/Recognition - It is embarrassing to some if their commanding their dog and it doesn’t listen.
3 - What does a trained dog look like to you?
At the very core this tells us what they are looking for. As a training company we have very high standards for what a trained dog is, right? According to our addition, subtraction and multiplication a dog trained by us should have their bad behaviors removed, a dog that knows the basics and a dog that can go to the games.
But this question allows us to really dive deep into what the client truly wants. If all a trained dog is to them is a dog that walks nicely or poops outside, then all the other stuff that we do is just extra.
This question also allows us to see what needs they want fulfilled through training, right?
A trained dog could fulfill any of the 5 out of 6 needs. This all depends on the needs of the owner though.
Certainty - A trained dog fills this need by making the owners much more certain that their dog will listen.
Uncertainty - I think this is one that isn’t fulfilled through training. Training at it’s core takes away from the feeling of uncertainty that owners feel.
Love/Connection - By getting their dog trained they are able to be less frustrated and are able to feel love and connection easier.
Significance/Recognition - By getting their dog trained a handful of families get their needs for Significance/Recognition met by their dogs acting good. Once their dog starts behaving, walking better, jumping less, etc. they get recognition from neighbors, friends, family, peers, etc.
Growth - A handful of families fulfill their need for growth through their dogs. They may not like to grow personally, or maybe they do, but regardless, they get this need filled by training and seeing the improvements in their dog. These people love HW, practicing and can’t get enough of learning things about their dog.
Contribution - Some people fill the need to want to contribute through their dog. We don’t get many of these because we only train family dogs and not service & therapy dogs. We do get some people who plan to do therapy training but they can’t due to their dogs disobeying. So they may not be directly fulfilling the need for contribution through us, but they will in the future.
The Key to All this
The idea behind all this is to discover the true human needs they want fulfilled through training. Once we know that we can use that to speak to their hearts. By doing this we go over the top and really Deliver Wow to these families.
The Different Cases
Maybe 1-2 out of 10 families hire us for a different reason. Rather than solving a problem for them with their dog they are hiring us because they are more goal oriented than anything.
So rather than their dogs violating a need, their dog just isn’t fulfilling a need they want fulfilled.
Three reasons people would hire us that don’t relate to problems…
They are goal oriented
They value Growth
They want to contribute and serve
Lets break each of these down a bit more.
1 - Goal Oriented Clients
Our goal oriented clients are people who don’t really have many problems but rather they want to be able to do more stuff with their dog. Like hike with their dog off leash, go to the lake, dog park off-leash, be able to come to our dog games.
What needs are they trying to fulfill?
Growth - They like growing or have growth needs they want to fulfill through their dogs.
Certainty - They want to be able to do stuff with their dog and be certain
Significance/Recognition - They want to be recognized for their dog maybe?
2 - Growth Oriented Clients
*You can have a client who is growth minded that also has problems*
Our growth oriented clients are people who like getting better, improving and seeing results and changes. Sometimes they project these same goals onto their dog and they want to fulfill this need for themselves and through their dog.
These clients are the best kind, in my opinion. These clients love the HW, they love practicing, they love new training exercises, they text you videos and updates, etc.
3 - Contribution Oriented Clients
We get these clients very rarely due to our scope of services. We mostly work with family dogs with problems and solving them as you now know. But sometimes before they can do therapy dog training, they need us to solve some problems for them.
These clients are trying to fulfill a need for growth and change as well as to be able to contribute in the future.