This thinking however put Arffa at a severe disadvantage, as everyone who had ever watched "the dog whisperer" or "dog borstal" was suddenly elevated to the level of expert. Having come from the education field myself I had assumed that asking questions demonstrated an enquiring mind open to discussion, but on the whole I discovered that it was interpreted as me having no idea about anything much, and slowly but surely every small misdemenour of Arffas (his chasing cats is a symptom of my lack of control) was escalated to folklaw among our small band of friends.