Article January 3, 2011 Issue

Just a suggestion

By Helen Stevermer

I was in the market for a puppy , and my needs were specific. I had learned from my older dog, the escape artist, that in order to contain a dog in my yard, I needed a breed that would grow to be wider than the spaces in my fence. With that in mind, my daughter and I excitedly set off to a pet store that featured adoption of abandoned dogs. 

As you might have guessed, all of the puppies were take-me-home adorable, but none met our size requirements. As we lingered to nuzzle the pets, an adoption attendant noticed my daughter cuddling a puppy and asked, “Has he stolen your heart yet?” How sweet that phrase sounded! It wasn’t until I heard the exact question repeated by two other attendants that I finally got it. Although well intentioned, the adoption staff understood the effectiveness of planting a powerful suggestion in the mind of a customer. 

This experience prompted me to think about the many suggestions that occur in my thought, and what effect, besides picking the wrong pet, might result from mishandling them. 

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