Looking at Success

There are a lot of books about success (and not) and looking at why certain individuals or groups of people are successful (or not).   I've been reading a lot of these over the last few months.   A few observations: (Other than that reading many books on the same subject means a lot of repetition):

1) A lot of practice is important.

2) Practicing the right things, and being efficient with practice, is important.

3) It's more about the right opportunities and practice than anyone being all that different or inherently exceptional.

4) It's important for challenges to be continually increased. The bar should always be set higher.

As I read, I think about this from different perspectives:  for myself, for my dogs, for my students, for my students who are enthusiasts/in sports classes, for my 4-H kids, and for the many instructors that I know.

Myself:  I know I've had a lot of practice.  The short version is that I had a lot of practice early on, it wasn't great practice but it wasn't bad either. I had opportunities to work with many species and I've been obsessive about animals for my whole life.   But I don't do as much practice as I used to.  I make use of my time at the shelter to maintain and improve training skills.   I continually work with my dogs.  I am now much more efficient with my training sessions.   In some ways I don't think I challenge myself enough (often taking the "easy route" in training), though my interest in various competition-type activities --does-- require me to continually work towards a high standard.

My Dogs: Griffin is 3.5.    When Blaze was 3.5, he probably had 10-25x the training hours Griffin has had.   Griffin is about a hundred times more proficient than Blaze. It's not just about Blaze's brain abnormality.   I've had higher standards with Griffin. My greater experience has allowed us to be more efficient.  We set out every training session with a specific goal (faster, straighter, closer, more still, higher, etc).  With Blaze, it was about getting a lot of sits in a row. I can also see the dangers (and damage) that result from practicing poorly or practicing the wrong things.  

My Human Students:  There are a lot of times when we do exercises specifically to let the people get the practice. We do things again and again and again. In some ways, I don't like "wasting" the time, but they do need to get into the habit and not everyone will work at home.  I am continually working to get the lessons to be more efficient, with more done in less time and to a higher degree of competency. I need to challenge this group more.

My Dog Students:  It's hard having two learners. Sometimes the dog is holding back the learning of the person, and sometimes it's the other way around. Again, it's a balance of challenging the team but also allowing enough repetition and time for them to get comfortable and competent with the skills.

Enthusiast Students:  They really like practicing. They don't always like (or think) to practice the stuff they should spend time on.  Sometimes it's harder to get these teams to practice efficiently or with good technique/skill.  They want to skip steps and shortcut. They can see the final picture but aren't always able to see what's required for each step in between. It's my job to challenge them at the right level and not let them get caught up in the big-picture goals.  Some of these teams have been in dogs for a really long time. I'm often amazed at the poor training many people (students or not) have been able to get away with and still have success...and I don't mean punishment.  Timing, setting criteria, reinforcement, training plans.    

4-H Kids:  This is a really interesting group.  It's easy to get them to practice some things.  Painfully hard to get them to see the importance of other things. We're on a limited time frame, meaning we shortcut some training steps or aren't competition-ready by competition day. But I do see many of them week after week for six or so months, every year for many years. It really gives me big-picture feedback on how our training plans are working. It also gets easy to fall into the patterns of doing the same activities again and again and not pushing that bar higher on a week to week basis.

Other Trainers:  I know a lot of dog trainers (the internet is amazing).  I have a lot of trainer friends.  I have many in classes or that I see on a regular basis.  I have some students who want to do teach. Without hesitation, I can say that I'm often rather concerned.  There are many professionals who need to spend some time training animals (teaching is a different skill set) as well as expanding their teaching and training skills.  Set the bar higher! Challenge!  I feel a lot of responsibility to help my trainer-friends. It's easier when they ask for help.  When they don't, it's a balance of finding ways that I can support or encourage them to keep working.

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At a dog-enthusiast group dinner, some of this came up.  It was interesting to hear what others heard, experienced, or did.

"Not Good Enough"

One of the things that many dog teams will say, especially those working on competition training or behavior modification, is "I just think he would do so much better if you were training him."

And the thing is, most dogs would do better with a trainer handling them.  It's not that there's anything magical about most dog trainers (though there are a few I wonder about....).  Most of these people have spent a lot of time training dogs, which means more practice, better decision making, better timing, better able to adjust criteria, and  being able to evaluate the situation**.

That said, it's important to recognize that most trainers probably think the same thing at various points.

What would Blaze and Luna be like if they were in a home where they got appropriate help as puppies?   Several trainers I admire talk about their challenging dogs and being able to overcome the challenges.  I've had to accept that it just won't happen with Blaze.   With Luna, who knows what progress is available, we're battling the lack of early socialization and bad luck with genetics.  And while Griffin is a very normal and adorable dog....   he has siblings competing at the highest levels and yet we've had to twice walk out of the rally ring after less than half the course.  It's definitely all me holding him back.

I know Griffin would do better with many of my students.  He would benefit from long walks in town every day, from a busier household, with more time and attention and regular attendance in class.  Hours and hours in the woods.  A classroom full of kids every day.   He would do well with someone who is a perfectionist.  And I can't give him all of those things right now.

So what do I do?
-  I make training plans for my dogs to address the biggest issue areas. I try to be productive with our time.  We try to maximize the benefits of any choices we make on how to spend our time.
-  I try to improve my skills. I spend time training my dogs and any others (....one of the reasons I volunteer at  the shelter!).  With good practice, I should get better.
- My class/lesson students are also part of this.  This allows me to see things that work and don't work as well with hundreds and hundreds of dogs.  There's no way I could learn so much with just working with my own dogs.
- I learn more and try new things. Seminars, books, DVDs, online articles and resources. Training groups and classes.  There is just so much information available now.
- Learn from the best:  In whatever area we're looking at. We use whatever materials we can get ahold of. We use what we can, make modifications of others, and try to evaluate and work to maximize our success.

And how is that working?   I'm continually making refinements to our training plans. I'm getting better. The learning curve is not as steep as it was a few years ago.  But if a small change cuts off minutes or hours of training, all the better.

Photo by Terri Tepper, 2008

**Massive amounts of practice or dedication are not, alone, sufficient.  The practice time has to be "good practice."  Spending many training hours of late clicking will only let someone get more proficient at late clicking. Some people are able to self-evaluate. Others need class and learning opportunities to become more proficient.

Professional Responsibilities

I read a book a while back that I really wanted to write about.  This book really distressed me. And even two months later, I'm still upset!  The training was, at times....not so great...but it was the instruction that horrified me.  I didn't think it would be fair for the author to potentially read the post and be offended or upset because it's entirely -not- her fault, she's the one that deserved better.   A large portion of the book is about the training instruction the owner (author) and her dog receive.  The author wrote about how she dreaded practice, how the instructor would treat the human and dog students and the relief she had when practices or the relationship ended.    That's not how it's supposed to be!     

Why is it that instructors feel like they need to yell at students?  Maybe it's because I've been clicker training for so long? It's not my responsibility to stand right there and physically/verbally "make" someone give a specific response.   When errors happen, it's about reviewing the teaching plan, making modifications, and continuing the lesson.   It is my responsibility to teach a certain skill set and that's through the teaching process, not just yelling out impossible tasks.  

When clients/students are confused or responding incorrectly, the instructor needs to make modifications.  Maybe use the same phrase once more, but if the same phrase is being used dozens of times, maybe the learner really just doesn't understand or doesn't have the skill set to respond correctly.

I took horse riding lessons for almost ten years.  I was not very good by the end, though I had some amount of proficiency from the repetition.  Looking back at that learning experience, I'm horrified at a lot of the things that happened.  I can't believe how the instructor was allowed to be teaching kids. I can't believe that parents did not speak up or do something about it.  There were some pretty basic skills I was never able to learn.

Some of it seemed to come down to what we see with dog training and in teaching dog owners/handlers.... instructors sometimes take the errors personally.   The learners do want to succeed. They want to avoid the embarrassment or attention or 'correction'/direction they get with errors.   They want to go on and do more things.  

I'm amazed at the number of clicker-ly instructors who put blame on the human clients/students.  If it was the dog, the instructor could look at breaking down the skill, using reinforcement, setting the team up for success. But with the human, they can't do it, take the errors personally, and direct the blame to the humans involved.

To some extent, the dog can't learn all week at home without the person working, and the person does have to take the initiative. On the other hand, why aren't people practicing? How can we make it easier, seem more achievable, more entertaining?  Maybe they need some additional notes on what to do, or need to see or hear the instruction in a different way. Maybe they need to take a few notes themselves so that they remember what to do.  Maybe we gave them too many things and need to simplify. Maybe they don't understand how to do it at home on their own.

It's also hard that dog trainers spend so much time learning about dog training. They go to conferences and seminars and learn more. Read books and lists and learn more.   There aren't enough opportunities on teaching the humans. And often those are skipped in favor of training education sessions.  Most of us spend more time teaching people than training dogs.   Not only are we teaching the humans...but a wide age range....  young kids to seniors, everyone in between and a huge range in skill level. It's pretty ridiculous at times.  

No snow here. It's been raining for a week.  The pond is really full.  Griffin has gone swimming.  On Wednesday it was 60*.

Non-Anthropomorphic

I'm probably too careful to not use any human-type words or traits and I know it's annoyed more than a few people who spend a lot of time with me.

One I hear most is about "stubborn" dogs.

Lots of students tell me about how their dogs are stubborn.   Many times, it's used to justify the use of punishment.   With some people I help them by joking our way through the situation. 

"My dog is so stubborn! She won't walk with me!"    Me: "Does she enjoy staring at squirrels?  How much fun has she had chasing/staring at squirrels?  How much fun has she had for walking nicely?  Remember....we've only been working one week.  If you were a dog and given a choice, what would you probably do?  Would that make you stubborn...no, she's just doing what is more fun."

The other part....stubborn seems to imply that the dog is making a choice to specifically annoy the humans, or at the very least, the dog is intentionally resisting the training process. This means the dog has to understand right-wrong.  The dog knows what will "annoy" the person. The dog is intentionally avoiding the reinforcers/"taking" the punishment to further annoy the person.  That's a really complex situation.....

So what's going on?   I try to get the dog's family to look at what is going on. 

•  We may be reinforcing the wrong behavior (Incorrectly done "Look at That")
• We may not have strong enough reinforcement history for the situation (above example of dog and squirrels).
• The dog may just not understand the behavior.
• The interaction may be punishing to the dog...so despite reinforcement being offered, the way the reinforcer is delivered or something about the environment is making the dog really want to do something else (Think, a scared dog and the teeter). 

In this situation, Griffin will often refuse food. Even raw hamburger.
He is too excited about the environment to be interested in food.
He is not making a choice to leave the food. He is not intentionally try
to get out of training.

What tends to help the most, is getting the people to develop some empathy for the dog and understanding of his situations. The most damaging part of some labels, like "stubborn" is that it puts the people against the dog and it's too easy for the humans to take the situation personally.  Once we're able to step back and in Karen Pryor's words, see it as "just behavior," the training and interactions go better.  Teamwork rather than putting the dog an person against each other.

Asking Questions

In my classes, I ask a lot of questions.  When I have problems, it's often because I didn't ask enough questions or I didn't ask the right questions.

Example:  Family presents the problem of the dog (adult, young Labrador Retriever) approaching family members and growling.**  
Question:  When does this happen?
Response:  When we are sitting on the couch.
Question: What is your dog doing during the growling?
Response: He has a toy. He comes over and growls.
Question: What do you do?
Response:   We put the leash and walk him around and make him sit.  We put him in his crate sometimes. Sometimes we ignore him.
Question: What is he doing right before the growling and right after?
Response:  Before, he gets a toy, comes over, hits us with the toy and growls. After the growling, he puts his front end on the ground and is wiggly.

We suspected it was about inappropriate ways to get attention. The initial training steps have been teaching the dog to stay/relax, to focus on the handlers, to get his attention needs met before the family settles for the evening, and to teach him better ways to get attention.

The questions I most ask:
Do you want to change that behavior?  Is it important to you to stop/change the behavior?  Sometimes the family does not. Sometimes they do.  Sometimes they think they do, but don't want to put in the work (which is understandable!).
Do you think he enjoys/likes  XYZ?  
What are your goals?  
Has the behavior changed (better, worse, the same) over time? How?
How would you use a stay/sit/down?   Sometimes people want behaviors for things that aren't as relevant for the problem.

And a few questions I've been asking more often:
What can I do to help you learn, what kinds of things make it easier for you to understand?   (Sending home books/written notes for some students, demos for others, letting them watch me, or directing to a video)
Is XYZ an option?   Rather than say to do XYZ..... (put the dog in his crate, keep him on leash in the house, etc.... I ask about compliance before sending them home.  If they won't do it....we need to find another way.)
How do you know XYZ?


Some of the questions I ask are to see what the students understand.
Examples:
1) I see a dog pulling on leash.    "Is he pulling on the leash?"   "No!"   I learned that the student has a different understanding of pulling or is not able to perceive the added pressure from the dog.
2) I hear that the training didn't go well in the week.  "What exercises did you try?"   And then the student responds with things that are completely NOT what I said...but I can see how they had misunderstood.  I go over things again and then write down the key points or have the student write it down.

Happy 2nd Birthday to this dog who was a board
and train as a puppy. He's training to be a Search
and Rescue dog and I really miss him!

3)  "What are his distractions/challenges?" "Can you write down his training plan?"   And I get some interesting lists.  There are things I would have added, there are things I didn't know about, and there are some parts I disagree with.   Maybe I'm wrong or maybe the student perception is different.

**A few details changed for privacy!

Respecting Professional Boundaries

Second theme of the week!

I get together with a trainer friend at a local park. It's amazing to have someone nearby to work with on such a regular basis.  We meet a couple times a week and it's just so great to get me out and working and to have help.  We tend to see the same people come to the park.  The group of joggers. The people emptying the trash. And someone else who stops by every morning on an errand.  After a few months, this person stopped to greet us and ask a question.    

The person works at peoples homes....and one place recently added a very (very) large breed dog to the home. The dog would growl and bark and be unfriendly towards this person and other visitors. The owners had been notified. The person would bring dog treats and wanted tips. I stepped in with something like, "You must have the owner keep the dog put away while you are there. It is not safe."  The person said that they'd had a conversation..... and that the dog had pinned him against a wall before.   "You need to insist that the dog is put away.  That is not safe for you. It's not good for the dog to be stressed either, tell the owners you're worried about the dog.  If they want help, they can call us. Otherwise, be safe."   

We haven't seen the person since then, but I sincerely hoped he took our advice.   Why didn't I give training tips or mention how bad it is to be hand feeding treats to a nervous dog?

1) Liability.   There was nothing in place to keep me safe and it's not a safe situation.

2) The owners were not on board.  The primary caretaker has to be on the same page.

3) This person has good intentions! Going out of his way to buy treats!  I want to prevent the person from having more bad experiences with dogs.

4) Safety!!   A dog that is pinning someone against a wall should not be loose while there are visitors. It's just not safe.

5) Multiple concerns. It's not just with this one person, but all visitors. There are likely other anxiety issues as well.

This week, on a few discussion lists there was talk of food and nutrition, and visitors in households not treating dogs well and rescue groups asking for help in situations where a veterinarian should be involved.

Most dog trainers very much have a "helping-people-thing," and really do want to help.  And in such an un-regulated field, we aren't always good at policing ourselves and knowing whether or not we cross lines is impossible when the lines aren't well defined.    This year I've heard a few really great examples of trainers who understand the lines and a few examples of people who weren't aware there are things a trainer should not do or say.   It'll be interesting to see how this changes in the future.  

"How Important is it to You?"

In basic training classes, this is one of the questions I ask about each of the problem areas.

Example 1: 
Client: My dog jumps on me every time  I step over the gate into that part of the house! But he doesn't jump up on my husband!
Me: How important is it to you that the behavior stops?
Client:  I don't mind it, it's great.
Me: If you don't mind it, we are not going to address it. But think through this!


Example 2:
Client: My dog digs in the yard!
Me: How important is it to you that the digging stops?
Client: SO SO important! He's ruining my yard!!
Me: For two weeks we need to completely eliminate any chance of practicing the behavior while we do re training.  Your dog will be on leash in the yard or completely engaged in an activity such as training or fetch games, as well as
Client: I can't do that! I have to put him out to go to the bathroom. I'm not taking him out on leash.
Me: How important is it to you that the digging stops?
Client: It HAS to stop.
Me: It's up to you. If you want it to stop, we can't let him have fun and practice the digging.  If you want to let him out alone, he may dig for fun or for something to do. Every time he does it, he gets better at it and the behavior is harder to change. It's your choice. If you want it to stop, you know the start to plan.

Example 3: 
Client: We need to train leave it! My puppy gets into the trash!
Me: Theoretically we can train that.  Due to safety though, it's best to put the trash in a contained area or get a tightly sealed trash can.  What if your dog ever makes a mistake and eats something dangerous.  Plus....you could spend a long time on that training, or use that time teaching something else.   Your choice.
Client: That's what I was thinking.

It's always interesting to see what is important.  In my household, it's not important that my dog is quiet when someone knocks at the door. We don't have a lot of visitors and we don't have nearby neighbors.  I don't mind my dogs going out the door without a release.  But I do want nice walking in public, I do want my dogs lying on the floor while I eat, and I do want them to focus when asked.

Asking the dog to work, compared to the dog asking to work.

Most dogs can fairly quickly to get to this point in class.  

For some teams, it takes longer to get to the dog demanding work.  The first things we look at are making sure the dog is comfortable (worried dogs have enough to think about other than work) and making sure the reinforcers are actually reinforcing.

Some handlers try harder and harder to 'make' the dog work and respond and even without using obvious and intentional punishment, the dogs can find the interaction unappealing.  And if the interaction is stressful...they have no reason to stick around.  The dog is more unresponsive and the handler tries harder and it's a really difficult cycle for everyone.  It's understandably easy for the handler to think about the dog as "intentionally" not responding and to start finding ways to justify the use of punishment.  Daily life and interactions become a battle that the person wants to 'win'. 

Many of these dogs are quickly unresponsive to luring. The handlers keep trying because at some point the dog responds, the handler sees the behavior happen, and then the handler is reinforced.   But it's a very different picture than a dog that is immediately and always following a food lure.

This week we saw success after long periods for two of these teams.   For one, I was able to get the owner to only be tossing reinforcers and not hand feed.  This changed the picture, decreased social pressure, and let us go for approximations. We were able to think about only getting what would be ideal and not asking for too much.  Just because the dog would do a million behaviors with luring and prompting didn't mean those behaviors were our competition ideal behaviors.  

For the other team, the person had a ton of stress over the week and really just wasn't caring about the training.  While the other things in the life of the family were unfortunate, it did take away some of the focus from the dog's behavior and misbehavior.  I didn't have to mediate the unspoken 'battle' to 'win'.  They just worked.  If we had a poor response, we easily and completely changed criteria and soon were back.  It was easier for me. Easier for the human. Easier for the dog.   

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Until students feel the difference of the dog begging to work, it can be hard to understand the difference or even feel it.  My dogs sometimes overwhelm other people who are not used to the difference.  Once when Griffin was around 7-8 months old, I had a student handle him in a practice rally course to compare the difference between her dog who was lured through and not as responsive.  She enjoyed the experience but attributed to his breed and personality.  While those factors are important, it's not the only thing that gets a dog asking to work.

At the shelter there is a 8+ year old not-very-mobile beagle who always begs to work. She stares right at people and offers her behavior and offers stillness, trying to get any chance to work.  She used to be very non responsive, but with her love of food and a few minutes each week, she has become very demanding!        

My goals, student goals

Personally, I'm really horrible at setting goals.  I've put in a lot of effort to learn about setting goals. I've used business resources, athlete resources, and general resources.   And it never really works out that well for me.

I am better at helping students reach their goals. Probably because it's a lot easier to be asking someone else to do all the work to get from Point A to Point B than it is to do that work yourself.  It's why I prefer teaching to training my own dogs!

That said... some of my recent reading has prompted me to re-think client goals.  Should pet and sport/enthusiast classes be different? Shouldn't I hold everyone to a high standard? If I set high expectations, will everyone work to achieve those levels of success?  Or should the content be different because of the different goals?

Blaze's goal is to never leave the water.  Griffin is considering the options.  

The first questions I typically ask in class are, "What are your goals for this class?  What prompted you to sign up for class right now?"  But maybe I need to add in, "How much time are you willing to commit?"  More than usual, I've had a high number of clients who are not meeting their goals.

I don't want to be the stereotypical dog training instructor and say, "They never practice, it's their fault!"   It's my responsibility to help them reach their goals and maybe my instruction wasn't clear or it was too difficult or I gave too many steps.   With a lot of these recent cases, the first thing I hear is "We didn't get to work at all this week.  The XYZbehavior is horrible, it HAS to change!"   No training happened.  More importantly, no management was put in place. The dog practiced the inappropriate behavior dozens of times during the week.  Somewhere I am failing those families and something has to change.

I'm going to start adding in to my questions, "How much time are you wanting to put into training?" and we'll use that measurement to help with the activities. It's part of the reason I don't use the bells that some dogs ring to go outside.... most of my student's don't want to spend the time period teaching the dogs.  I don't blame them...I've never done it.   Last night we talked about a puppy getting into the trash. They've used some management, but not always. The puppy is getting more sneaky. We talked about all the training we could do...."But in reality, it would just be easier to get a locking trash can.  Spend the $25-30, and then you have hours and hours to spend with your puppy training other things.  You don't have to worry about your dog making a judgement mistake and grabbing something that could kill him."  If someone doesn't want to put in the time, we can find variations and management options.  For whatever reason, life-long management sometimes gets a bad name in dog training, as if it's not really resolving the issue.  Sometimes other things are just more important ways to spend time.

On the other end of it, I've had a small number of very dedicated clients, with fairly normal dogs, wanting to do lots of sports and activities, wanting a high level of proficiency, and putting in a lot of practice.  Yet they are getting very little progress.  I can see the weak training skill areas. I try to design lessons to improve the human's ability for training and to address the dog's weak areas.  And it still doesn't go well.  I'm letting down those students as well, but in a very different way.

All that said, I'm not unhappy and am excited to see if the upcoming changes in classes will get even better results.

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In other news.... I'm already behind on processing and rewriting my seminar notes.  Griffin was pretty great at class, super fast and not running away. We messed up every single exercise.... but the speed and enthusiasm were our priorities. It should go better next week.

Your Dog is Not A Fish: Using a longline to teach recalls

We recommend practicing in lots of environments to get very fluent and reliable behaviors.  It's especially important to practice in the environment where you most need the behavior.

For safety reasons, we can't just let your dog off leash in the front yard to work on recalls. And  we don't want to give the dog opportunities to make errors or practice other behaviors (chasing squirrels).

The magic of a longline!  We use longlines for puppies, small and medium sized dogs, and only big dogs under certain circumstances.  We talk about using a harness and safely handling the line (no ropeburn for dogs or humans).  

For big dogs, we tend to only use the longline in already fenced areas, giving us the chance to just let go if we think holding on could cause damage to the dog or person.

What we never -ever- ever -ever- do is reel in the dog like a fish.   I always follow that sentence with, "well...if you saw a tornado coming or a car...then yes, do what you have to."   If you have a lesser emergency, like needing to go to work, do not reel in your dog.  Pick up the line and walk to your dog. You can gather in the line as you go. It's not the dog coming to you, you are going to your dog.  Then you can hold the line at a normal leash length and walk him to the house.

Reeling in dogs teaches them to come when reeled in. It's not a bad skill, but it's 100% different than coming-when-I-call.   Reeling in as a response to an incorrect response does -not- teach the dog he "has" to come when called.  It teaches him he has to come when reeled in.

The real danger is that people then think the dog knows to come when called...and the dog learns to come when called (or else be reeled in).   When the line comes off.... the dog knows it's come when called or go chase squirrels. There is no risk of fish-reeling in.   And then the people get very sad that,"HE KNOWS when the line is on!"

Just like dogs that learn to not jump on the counter if a human is in the room....this is a much harder problem to fix.  We have to go back to small fenced areas, completely off leash.  Dragging a longline in safe fenced areas.  Training the recall in small fenced areas.  Working on all the recall parts separately.  It's really much easier to just not reel the dog in the first place.

"Should I continue with class? Should I come back if there's a problem?"

By then end of a class session, half  the students have typically met their goals and are happy with the progress made.   The other half asks, "what's next?"

What are your goals?  If we haven't met your goals, we should probably keep working.   We can talk about class options to see if there's something else that would be a better fit for your goals.   For example, people wanting off leash control are often recommended to go into agility class, even if they don't aim to do agility. 

Will you practice if you aren't in class?   Some people need the weekly classes to motivate practice at home, others are diligent no matter what.  Those who have more experience problem solving or "just trying things" are more comfortable with time off and without the support of a class.  Others benefit from the problem solving, class environment, and new behaviors.  

It's easier to prevent than problem solve.   Those with younger dogs or who are newer to being dog owners can benefit from more class time and more guidance.  A little experience goes a long way and can add skill and confidence to the human.

Always come back if you're experiencing a challenge.  You're not on your own after class is over.  Sometimes a few weeks in class can help with problem solving or sometimes it's a quick answer on the phone.

How reliable are your behaviors now? How reliable do they need to be?  More class time results in more reliability.   The increased practice, increased challenges, increased skill level all go together to help reach the skill level needed.

What are you getting out of class?  This varies depending on the family. Some people aren't there to just solve problems. They are getting time away from family or time with their family. They are "doing things" with their dog. Sometimes out of the cold winter weather or out of the ridiculous heat and storms in the summer.  The dog is reliably getting this piece of physical and mental exercise and quality time every week.  

There are dogs that I recommend should continue in class. These are typically young, active dogs that are making steady progress every week, but I don't feel they've reached the ideal self control and reliability needed for long term results.   Dogs who are -not- making measurable progress should not continue in class and the situation needs to be re-evaluated...either the dog referred to a more appropriate professional or a change in the teaching style (privates or in homes rather than group class).  

It also makes me sad to hear -so- many people wishfully comment that they really hope and would like to do agility class some day.  As if they're not sure their dog is "good enough" or "smart enough" to do it.  I try hard to change the perception of agility to something that is very attainable and that everyone should consider agility class.   While I understand why some classes require and recommend basic training prior to the agility class.... it could be built into the class format (...which is what I do).  Agility is a great way to the reliability, basic training, self control and relationship building that are fundamental to so many parts of dog training.  

"What was hard?"

After leash reactivity class we try to always ask "Which part was the best and which part was the hardest?"

It's very, very interesting how most people will then tell the best part.. and the "worst" part.

Part of that probably is that "worst" is considered to be the opposite of "best"....and so it just comes out.   It also just seems like a very human thing to do... to perceive the question as where the errors/mistakes/fault could be.

We ask the question so that the following week can be set up to decrease that difficulty, if at all possible, and then work through it.   And also to keep the owners thinking about what is easier or harder for the dog.  Sometimes someone will say that none of it was hard.  If I had seen that the dog -was- finding parts to be more difficult, I can prompt with, "Were there any exercises that seemed to be a little more difficult than the others?"

The difference in the questions is very important.  The "worst" part (not responding to a cue, barking, getting stiff when another dog barks, etc) is not always the "hardest" part (-when- another dog barked, -when- we got really far from the opening, -when- we were turning away).   "Hardest part" tends to be something about the handler's choices or the environment.   "Worst" parts are typically about incorrect or poor responses...and while we definitely have to consider these....     it's the environment and handler that we can change.  And to change the environment and handler, we have to know what parts were harder and what components led to making things too hard for the dog.

I try to ask the "best and hardest" questions after all of my own training sessions.  Griffin has been really great for the last few days.   But a few of his behaviors hinted they could be weaker than I thought. He didn't make errors, he met criteria, and I couldn't even say how the behavior was different.  Something wasn't quite how it should be....and I make a note of these weaker areas so that I can address them separately.

Is Dog Training "Too Hard"?

Sometimes at training group we talk about whether or not training is "too hard."   We struggle with parts of it.  Our dogs aren't perfect (except for Griffin....).   And how do we expect people to succeed when they don't want or need to know everything about training?

Sometimes I try to be nice and will give someone a training plan via some online source.   There are management steps ("So we don't accidently make the behavior stronger and so that we don't compromised/undo your training") , a few training exercises/steps to resolve the situation, and a few notes on what to do if something goes wrong and the unwanted behavior happens.   And 90% of the time I get told, thanks but no. The person either then does nothing or reverts to some punishment-based solution that they sometimes regret, and sometimes not.... but typically the problem is not truely resolved.

Sometimes my 'real life' students say something is very important and then they don't actually work on it.  I get busy. I don't always work with my dog like I should.   Despite that study I wrote about.... some things really do need practice at home and not just training class. Practice your greetings at the doors and on walks with real people.  A few repetitions in class is not enough for most dogs to generalize, no matter how great the training plan.     

But is it that they get busy?   Sometimes they can't tell me the steps or exercises.  On a few occasions there have been people who needed it written down and then they could practice. Some people need video so that they can see it.  It's just too many steps for others....and I have to really condense/simplify steps.

An Example:  A while back I had someone in class who had a hard time remembering multiple steps to any exercise, even if we back chained it, even if he was doing it well, she didn't know -what- he was doing.  So we simplified and relied more on classical conditioning for a few weeks.  "Call dog, drop treats between feet" were our early recall training repetitions.  Once that had been practiced quite a bit....   we only dropped treats after the dog came.  Because the dog was going to come after that huge history of reinforcement.

Dog training is hard. There are a lot of pieces to it. Ways to refine the training. Be more efficient and effective.  I probably need to be simplifying even more than I typically am... that said, it's interesting to me how many people do want to know more and are eager for more details and a better understanding.  Then again, we're so attached to our dogs that I shouldn't be surprised.

A Shaping Class?

Four times this week the topic has come back to training enthusiasts needing to be better at breaking down behaviors into separate components.

Once you've trained a behavior, you often have one (or more) ideas on how to teach it to another dog.  Being able to take a behavior you haven't trained and break it down into the smallest parts is a separate skill.  Those I know who are best at this learned to be proficient through practice. Modifying plans they had been given, taking new behaviors and coming up with plans, and thinking through the many possible options for shaping any given behavior. 

How to teach someone that extra piece of skill is a separate challenge.  I've thought about doing a class or workshop...but most of those  I mentioned are too far away for that to be an option. I've thought about doing an online class....but I don't know if I could get people to commit.  On the to-do list is a website with specific activities for improving shaping.

Students in a pet class typically just need to be given efficient plans, it's the responsibility of the instructor to determine what is likely to be the fastest and most efficient training plan.  In competition classes, it's the same thing. The students want the best plans possible.   It mostly comes down to those who will spend a lot of time working on their own or those who are just training enthusiasts who really want to learn this sort of thing.   In reality, being able to efficiently break things down would allow anyone to do much better problem solving, on their own or in conjunction with a professional. It's much harder to create resources and classes with that angle compared to materials directly for an enthusiast.

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Being able to break down behaviors has been a strong point for me for a very, very long time.  Two events, fairly recently, have allowed me to be even more proficient.

One is TAGteach.  I went to a seminar in 2008 and 2009.  It made me very excited about teaching and training.  And I was/am envious of the TAGTeach vocabulary that we don't have in training.  In TAG Teach there is discussion of the one point of instruction, the "Value Added Tag Point", that improves several aspects at once.  We don't have a word for that in animal training. I've put in more of an effort to find and utilize those in training.  There is a big focus on breaking behaviors down into separate points, that just seems more effective than how things are explained for the same concept in animal training.   

The other event was Morton and Cecilia's presentation at ClickerExpo in 2008. This inspired me to get Griffin. They broke down behaviors into just beautiful little parts. Separate and perfect before putting things together.  A high level of perfection.   But also, the way of breaking down behaviors was far more efficient than what I've typically seen.

A few quick notes on chaining:

There are many different ways to put multiple behaviors.

It is important that we train each separate part to fluency ("perfection") before we start to put it together. If we have a weak piece, the whole chain may fail.

Let's consider a chain of A-B-C-D-E, that is always done in the same order.  When we put this together, we have a few options to put it together.  Here are the ones I can come up with:

• Work on adding in the consecutive order. As you work through the chain, you start with the most reinforced, strongest point and move towards what your dog knows less well.  A-Reinforce, repeat many times. A-B-Reinforce, repeat many times. A-B-C-Reinforce, repeat many times. A-B-C-D-Reinforce, repeat many times. A-B-C-D-E-Reinforce, repeat many times.
• Adding parts, starting at the end.  Backchaining. As your dog goes through the chain, he is working to his strongest pieces, the ones that have been reinforced the most.  E. Reinforce. Repeat many times.  D-E-Reinforce, repeat many times.  C-D-E-Reinforce, repeat many times. B-C-D-E-Reinforce, repeat many times. B-C-D-E-Reinforce, repeat many times. A-B-C-D-E-Reinforce, repeat many times.
• Vary the pieces. Initially random, smaller segments, then extend the size of the pieces.  C-D-Reinforce. A-B-Reinforce.  C-D-E-Reinforce.  B-C-D-Reinforce. A-B-Reinforce. D-E-Reinforce.   
• Get each piece perfectly and then theoretically it will all go together brilliantly.  

These are not straightforward. You can be using multiple options.

This is somewhat being put together for an advanced-class-lesson-piece.   I want to share computer. Unfortunately my computer is full. My external hard drive is full. I suppose that means I should use video that I already have?

Word Choices: Positive Phrasing

A few nice things that came up recently:

Luna has had a lot of points
subtracted. She loves the table.
But she also loves to run all
over the place.

A student recently commented that he was a bit distressed about doing "everything wrong."    And while there definitely were some things that could use improvement with the scenario, we had a nice little talk about how it was more that "There are things that could be more efficient."    Unlike math, with dog training, there are few things that are wrong.   Sometimes there are things that are less efficient or don't work as well.   But rarely things that are just wrong.

Last week at camp, one of our teen counselors was doing an agility lesson. She explained about how the teams can acquire points by completing obstacles.  When the time period was up, teams have to run to the table to stop the time.   And for "every second over time, a point is subtracted from your score."    Subtracted from your score!   I was so proud and so impressed.  This is typically phrased as, "You loose a point for every second over course time."   She turned it around and put it in a much more passive, much less negative way!

Traveling, Teaching, Training

On Saturday I did a morning training clinic at Jefferson County Fairgrounds and then a fun show for 4-H'ers in the area. Most came with slip collars, a few with head halters, all were pulling on their dogs. Our obedience sessions focused on getting movement together, seeing precise behaviors, and starting our stays. Our showmanship was on the basics of handling. The fun show had to be modified to acommodate the very beginners in their own class.

And yesterday, we went down to Warren County to do another 4-H clinic. This one was much easier (3 people teaching 10 kids instead of 1 person:10 kids), and we had a better teaching outline. The area has a very successful dog program, it was interesting to see how the kids interacted with each other and their dogs. We worked on super precise behaviors, teamwork, and breaking things down into super tiny pieces.

I took the advanced kids off to work on the retrieves... taking items (...we had to resort to "bad training" to get this...treats in a paper towel, clicking for teeth on the paper towel. One dog progressed to regular paper), sticky touches, moving towards items (dowel sticks). Griffin helped with a demo on what the next stage would be....I think I scared some of the kids and advisors with his enthusiasm....their dogs were calm and controlled and effort was made to keep the dogs that way. Griffin was literally bouncing off the walls. But he worked well. And then we talked about the lagging problem these kids were facing in the off leash heeling portions. We problem solved, came up with a few solutions, and it came down to that the kids were chattering at the dogs during heeling in training. We practiced 2-3 steps of silent heeling, then reinforcing.

I left half an hour early to help with a leash reactivity class (one dog making SUPER progress and the others progressing on great-average), flyball with Griffin (great stays, tugging, and some box turns...he had refused to last week).

And then home for dinner and sleeping.

It's great to do the traveling for the clinics and to help out all of the kids, advisors, and parents. We also learn a ton about what works (and doesn't) in dog programs. It's really quite something and a great way to gather information about how we can improve our clinics and our work with our club. It helps with programming at the state level. What I took away from this weekend: While there are state level contacts available to advisors/instructors, they don't all know it/use it. There could be a benefit to a state-available curriculum...there was one in the past but it's not currently being used/distributed. We need to start the "advanced" skills earlier on. We need more teaching and training tutorials for the higher level skills. We need more support for the advisors and instructors, especially on the kid-adult interaction portions.

The thing that really stands out about 4-H and how it's different than many/most youth programs, is that you have a variety of ages in the same group. 8-18yo kids... in some cases, younger members. And yet, you can have older kids with less experience, younger kids who are far more experienced, and your instructors and advisors need the capability to interact and teach appropriate wtih this wide age range.

Now off to prepare for our two 4 day dog camps, just a month away, and a day that I'm teaching at an animal day camp.....

Determining Appropriate Learning Environment for Students

Types of class, group or private, type of instruction.... there are a lot of ways to modify the learning experience for students.

Types of class: Typically, people know what they want when they're signing up for classes, and often this is the right option for the student. Agility. Puppy Class. Basic Manners. Sometimes it is not. It's important to find out the goals of the student and what they are most wanting to learn or modify to be sure the class is a good match for reaching those goals It's also important for the instructor to have a referral network in place for situations where a type of class is not offered. Family with a young puppy wanting some training? We direct them to puppy class. Family with 9 month old puppy, wanting to get into puppy socialization class? They go to basic manners, the puppy is aged out of basic manners class.

Group v Private: Some students do better with smaller group sizes, some do well in a larger group. Group classes are typically less expensive for the student, the X number of weeks helps the student to commit to class for a period of time, and the social aspects can be enjoyed. But group classes are not always appropriate for situations where there is a lot of individual help needed, such as behavior problem solving or home management challenges. Some learning styles do better with a private lesson and the complete attention of the instructor.

Teaching Style: Instructors set out classes and lessons in different ways. All good instructors should be able to modify their teaching style for a variety of learners, but not all instructors are the best option for all students. It's important to see how a student learns well, and how they do not. We need to be setting up sessions that are just as great for the humans as they are for the dogs. Some people need notes in writing. Some need to see things in action. Some have to practice. Some need more feedback, and some need just a start and can go along.

And so not only do we need to consider all these pieces (and more) when talking with students and potential students, but we have to efficiently filter them into the right environment for most success. This week I'm re-thinking how we're doing some of this and how we may need to modify our current process so that we can better help students.

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Me? I like group classes. I like just blending in and not having to come up with my specific goals and problem areas. It's great to work around other dogs and people and to see how other people teach classes and how the students respond in those environments. But it's hard to commit to group classes (x weeks in a row, at the same time) or to find one where we will be learning enough/getting enough out of the class for our money and time's worth (...typically an hour some drive!). So, recognizing the importance of value (time and money!), for the last few years we have mostly done private lessons only for obedience and agility. Our specific problems and challenge areas are addressed. The instructors give us feedback and we have their complete attention. I go home with things to work on and after we have accomplished those pieces, we go back to class. In group classes, I would sometimes not do my homework. Meaning less progress in class. Meaning less learning for our money and time.

It's a challenge to work things out just right!

Reinforcing Students

I came across this list of "good job" phrases. Not all of them are applicable, but it's important to remember there is more than the "Very Good!" "Excellent!" "Nice!" and "Great!" that I typically use.

One thing I've noticed in the last few weeks is that I need to be more careful about my reinforcement for humans for response to dog errors.

There are points in training where the dog makes an error...and the human has to respond in some way. Not reinforcing. Starting over. Moving to re-set. And some people have a hard time with that. They reinforce for the error, they give the dog a look before reseting. They pause and flounder for a moment trying to remember what to do.

If I don't explain the exercise well, or what the focus (TAG) point is, to these people it seems like I'm giving a "Nice!" or "Great!" for the dog making a mistake. When really....my timing and intention is for their response to the error!

Now I'm trying to say "Correct!" or "Good on your part!" to try to more carefully direct the reinforcement/marker words to the human end of things.

The Best Class Yet

I don't know if it was because I had an almost normal amount of sleep for the first time in 10 days or if the information from vet conference was finally seeping into my head, or if it was just luck, but class last night was great.

All the dogs made measurable improvement within the hour. All the choices I made were effective, all the dog students were happy, all the human students had a great time.

The night started with a head halter fitting. We picked a color and a size and I shaped the puppy to put her muzzle into the loop. Horray! Less than two minutes! And then while the puppy had a break, the owner was able to practice putting a head halter on a fake dog. Then I did another shaping session with the puppy and the owner had a turn. The team will work all week on putting-it-on-for-treats and putting it on before meals. Next week we'll start walking with it and maybe putting the leash on it too.

In both the 7:00 and 8:00 classes, we started with walking like usual. Some dogs were working on the squirrel game. Some were introducing walking with the "backwards walking" activity. Another was doing pace changes. Puppies were attentive and happy.

We then worked on recalls, while I helped one team, the others worked on reinforcing "more relaxed" behaviors. We talked about what those would be and how we would have to be using a high rate of reinforcment due to the excitement of one dog running. The humans were so good on this. Most of the dogs didn't even stand up. It was amazing. This happened in both classes!

And the recall dogs were great. While we didn't directly talk about "how to train a perfect recall" at vet conference... the things discussed did helped me be very concise and good at pointing out the most important parts to students. We talked about rate of reinforcement, value of reinforcer, and building a solid foundation. Look for more on this another day!

One class had time to do leave it, some dogs were on the first step, others were a few steps into it. Most were wanting to put the cue to it now, so we talked about whether or not we wanted "leave it" to mean "Sniff my hand and back away" or not. As usual, I told my students, "If you want that, I'm okay with it. It's up to you! Personally, I don't want my dog to nose touch my sandwich before backing away, especially if he just did that on a walk to a dead squirrel!"

And then in both classes, we worked on polite greetings. One dog was held by me, getting fed treats and learning it's okay to be with a stranger. And the owners would go to each station and stand at a target, while the dog owners reinforced their dogs for appropriate behaviors.

We talked a little about how to work on greetings at home and then wrapped up for the night.

Usually I walk out thinking about the things that could go better. Exercises I could teach better, places I could be more tag-gy. Exercises I should train differently. Dogs that weren't progressing. Dogs I needed to find ways to lower stress.

But last night was next to perfect.