Dog Behavior

The Struggle is Real – When was the last time you tried to figure something out? Something you didn’t know. It was a struggle. Maybe it was a bit frustrating. It wasn’t easy. But then…suddenly, you did it! Woohoo!!! Feels good right? Builds your confidence right? Makes you feel a bit like a baddy right? Dogs are the same!!

Yes, I know, I said I want them to succeed. And I do. BUT I’m not against struggle. Not so much that the dog is overwhelmed or bails. But enough that when the dog does “win”, they feel amazing!! And then..then, we celebrate with them.

I’m super excited for them! So are my training partners. We cheer, we praise, we laugh… I run to the reinforcer with them. I’m building their ego. Wow! Look at you!! That was big girl work! You are amazing!! It’s a huge event! Often my dogs are barking, they are spinning, they are SUPER excited. Yes!! That’s what we want.

If we always bail them out the SECOND it gets hard…we create learned helplessness. Trust me. I’ve done it. And that translates to failure in the ring. The ring is HARD. There is no getting around it. That’s reality. I don’t care how well you train. I don’t care how talented your dog is. The ring is hard. They will be challenged. And when they are, what will they do? What we trained them to do. They will push through because we’ve taught them how. Or they will fail because they are waiting for us to bail them out. Because that’s what we do in training.  This can be a very hard concept for people. Especially in the positive training space.

Let’s say we put a distraction like a container near the DB. The dog is inexperienced. It runs out, briefly checks out the container as if to say “what is this doing here?” then grabs the DB and runs back. I praise the heck out of that. The dog solved the problem. They figured it out. Now, if Zayna did that, I’d tell her she is wrong. She is 9 years old. She has been to countless Regionals, multiple Nationals…she is HIGHLY trained. She knows she shouldn’t look at it. But a dog new to the challenges? I’m fine with what they did.

Then I will throw the DB again. Generally, the dog now ignores the container and just grabs the DB. Good dog!! It learned!!! If it goes to the container again, or the dog gets so enamored of the container that it can’t retrieve the DB, then the challenge is to hard. We need to simplify so the dog can be right.

Handling “Mistakes”.  Do NOT tell your dog they are wrong. How can they be wrong when they are learning?  As I mentioned above, give them a chance to figure it out. But if they can’t, then it’s up to us to do something. Simplify. Move the challenge further away. Or you move closer so you can help the dog with some additional verbal cues. Or maybe even to point out what they should be doing (As long as this is NOT adding pressure. How do you know? Watch the dog. They will tell you.).

Sometimes we thought a behavior was fluent but when we add challenges it falls apart. That’s good information. That behavior/chain needs more practice. It’s not fluent yet.

WE must also be problem solvers. WHY is my dog repeatedly “failing”? WHAT can I do to help the dog succeed? That’s our challenge. If you can’t figure it out, table it. That’s perfectly acceptable. Sometimes I just need time to process and think it through. Rather than go down a rabbit hole of failure and frustration, I’ll put it on the back burner and think about it. If I can’t figure it out, I get help.