For the better part of the year my gut was alarming, and I couldn’t get it to turn off. After the alarms stopped I began to feel a sense of bewildering remorse; like I had done something really bad.

But I was confused too; I didn’t understand what happened to my crazy town – it seemed everything was “on fire.”

So I went to find out what had happened, and I discovered that I’d been deceived. I ended up passing out misinformation that destroyed me, undermined my freedom of thought, and ruined everything that was good and wholesome about my perfectly imperfect crazy town.

I have a moral obligation to not pass off biased information as truth and never to tell stories in such a way that you feel wrong in your relationships with your dogs. The only truth I have is that I don’t have any business foisting expectations onto your relationships. And this is especially important for anyone who is newer and learning.

You deserve unbiased narrative, and at points during this year, I didn’t deliver that. There were situations where the expectations were TOO HIGH and motivated by a sale. And if that was to anyone’s detriment, then I need you to know I’m dreadfully sorry.

I learned a hard lesson, but I promise I have done my research to ensure this epistemic faux pas doesn’t happen again, and my organization has a robust screening process as well as no tolerance for self-serving misinformation or attempts to use a bias to leverage an agenda. We don’t mislead people for personal gain. We don’t use people. Ever.

What I also learned is:

1. If anyone has to lie to you to make a sale, that is not a salesperson. Salespeople should be proud of their products and should not require manipulation to sell them.

2. Evaluate the expectation before you evaluate you.

3. There are lots of ways to accomplish your goals. There is never only one right way ever. You’re allowed to do what works for you and what feels good to you – even if you have to invent it!

4. If one way isn’t working in the context of your relationship, try a new way.

You’re doing so much better than you may think. Keep going. Keep trying. Keep learning. Keep messing up honestly. And I will keep doing the same.

Love from Crazy Town.