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    I never thought of myself as a small-dog person. In the past, I've always had medium-sized dogs and laughed to myself when men pranced their shih tzu around the neighborhood, or women carried their toy poodle in a handbag. When I met my wife, it was a package deal: if I wanted her, I had to want the seven-year-old chihuahua that came with her. Little did I know, we would rescue a second chihuahua years later... It turns out I'm pretty fond of our two tiny dogs, "Ops" and "Maintenance"; however, they were not so fond of each other.

    Ops is the alpha dog, and she calls most of the shots. She was very set in her ways as an only chihuahua, and wasn't too pleased when we rescued Maintenance (MX), a male puppy. Ops is a bit of a princess, likes things to go her way, and will let you know when she's not happy. MX is laid back, very playful, and always seems to be happy. For several weeks, MX walked on eggshells around Ops. One wrong move and Ops would bite MX's face. We had to work hard to acclimate the two by taking walks together, playing ball together, and training together.

    Today, Ops and MX are buddies... most of the time. MX helps Ops out by licking her face and ears clean (gross, I know), and even though they have seperate beds, they sleep together in the pack mentality. As different as they are, they've figured out not only how to co-exist with each other, but how to maximize the benefits of their partnership.

    At multiple airports, I've noticed similar challenges with relationships between Operations and Maintenance departments. To be clear, I've never witnessed an actual face-biting incident, a la Casa de Speidel, but rather heard tales of other types of animosity between personnel. It makes me wonder why the two sometimes have trouble getting along while at the office - where they're all on the same team.

    I understand personnel in Maintenance and Operations often have their differences, but I have seen these same relationships blossom when they're brought together for training. I'm not suggesting nor encouraging ear-licking or bed-sharing, however; getting Ops and Maintenance on the same page, on an equal playing field, and empowering them with the same knowledge, can provide insight, perspective, and ultimately respect for each other's functions at the airport. We just finished some on-site training last week where we enjoyed having three departments brought together: time will tell as to how those relationships benefited from training together.

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