Trainer or psychologist?
By now, some readers are thinking that dog training is looking awfully complicated. Heck, they just want to get a couple of titles. Have some fun on the weekends; make new friends. And here's a blogger suggesting that each dog she's trained is an act of perpetual psychology; make a few wrong moves and damage the team.
The good news is that most dogs are highly forgiving - you'll be able to make lots of mistakes and they'll never let on. The percentage of relatively straightforward dogs rises if your goal is to trial only a few times a year; mostly to get the titles. And if you select the "right" dog, and use a method of training that has proven effective with that type of dog, you'll have even more success. It helps if you're not sweating the picture too much.
If you know that you're temperamentally unable to stand frustration and you want great success, then I'm going to suggest you select your breed, individual puppy and training method very carefully to get the stars aligned in your favor. Really. There's no point in knocking your head against the wall if your primary interest is to succeed via the scoresheet.
The trade off, of course, is that the easy ones dont' advance our skills very much. But sometimes what we need to learn is simply basic mechanics, in which case the best choice is to select for a highly forgiving, willing and stable partner, at least to start.
"Forgiveness", "willingness" and "stability" will take you far in the sport of obedience. I'd say it's 90% of the battle, once you master those pesky technical skills. Because if your dog has forgiven you whatever you did to get the skills taught, isn't having a personal meltdown at the dog show, and wants to make you happy even when you're not dangling a cookie, then the future is bright indeed.
But with dogs lacking one or more of those qualities, teaching the exercises ends up being the easy part. Getting those skills into the ring - well, that's another kettle of fish. And if you want a dog that shows a relaxed, happy picture....now you're in the realm of serious challenge.
If you have already selected your non-traditional obedience breed and don't plan to switch, or you currently own a dog that you're training for competition, or you've discovered that your traditional obedience dog isn't acting traditionally, then being something of a doggy psychologist is probably a good idea, especially if you're running into trouble. For me, that's the part of training that is interesting - figuring out how to keep the entire team emotionally comfortable, happy and willing.
The best thing about reading a blog is that you don't have to. You could go outside and train your dog instead. But if you're still here, it's possible, or even likely, that you're sort of interested in your dog as a partner; you'd like to understand what is happening inside that furry head and make things as good as possible for the team, not just the human. In which case, I'd say we're off to a good start, because my goal in teaching is to help others think like doggy psychologists too.
My new puppy is only 12 days away now. I cant' wait to meet her!
17 comments
I’m really glad that I stumbled upon your blog and am enjoying reading your posts. I’ve had the pleasure of training 5 different breeds from 3 different groups- all with unique personality traits, gifts, and challenges. I am a moderate competitor who trials/shows lightly. However, I am fortunate to have earned an OTCH, several UDX’s, advanced retriever field titles, 3 MACHS, and now a few herding titles on my dogs, and have run in terrier earth dog trials.
I can see your point about selecting a “traditional” performance breed and many people do that, especially in agility. I’ve owned different breeds for various reasons (spouse had an affinity for labs) and did train a bc and a golden – “traditional” breeds. But now I own the breed I always wanted, not a “performance” breed, and have no regrets. My spouse’s little terrier, while definitely “all terrier”, is a very easy dog to train and motivate.
I believe every dog has gifts and challenges. Believe it or not, my bc was one of the hardest dogs that I ever trained because of his reactivity. I think it is too easy to fall back on the “labels” we give dogs and to lament that it’s not a bc/golden, whatever. It saddens me to see so many folks turn away from breeds they intrinsically enjoy in order to gain success in performance events. I no longer evaluate “success” by titles, scores, or other external criteria, but by the level of teamwork I’m able to achieve with my own dogs. Sometimes, that is even more challenging than it appears, but when you get that connection, it’s incredible.
I’m excited to hear about your adventures with your new puppy!
I love your posts Denise! I just hope I can absorb it all and transfer that to my canine partner! I totally have a lot to learn and know that I have messed my dogs up in some way with my training and I only hope they look past me and just “get it”. LOL Keep the posts coming as I look forward to reading each and everyone.
Great post, Denise – some of the same concepts are touched upon by Suzanne Clothier’s article “Hard to Train?” (http://flyingdogpress.com/content/view/18/94/). Her 3 trainable dog qualities are willingness, confidence, and intelligence (which she defines as environmental awareness/curiosity), but boy do I agree with you that forgiveness must be in the mix. And yes, it certainly has been my experience (with my nontraditional obed. dog – Kai Dog mix?) that the exercises were the easy part. And that was a tough lesson I had to learn very much on my own.
Melinda I was glad to see you here as I almost went over to your blog to tell you Denise was writing some of the same things you have been working on over the Summer with Phoenix!
It’s a big debate I have in my head all the time. Take the dog not built fornthis competitive obedience and train trial and learn? Or move on. I keep thinking every new week with him is learning and making me better for the long run. Great thing to think about!