We all want a calm, focused, hard worker—but don’t cheat the process to get there! (Photo By: Jordan Horak)
I sometimes pause and reminisce about the evolution of dog training over the last three decades and how far it has come. The tools and content available to “newbies” is unprecedented, and frankly, somewhat overwhelming. With a short online search, one can quickly find a plethora of videos, blogs, and social media posts showing an enormous amount of training techniques. No doubt, some of these can be very helpful, others not so much. Wading through what is legitimate and what is not can be tedious, but there’s certainly no lack for material.
As a whole, I think this mass of information is very positive for the hunting dog community. I know I would have benefited from it when I started my journey of dog training almost 30 years ago. Back then, although the world wide web existed, there was no online dog training content—at least not that I was aware of! Training was largely trial-and-error, book reading, and through face-to-face mentoring. If you weren’t good at problem solving and didn’t have a mentor—good luck!
While all of this content can be helpful and inspiring, I believe it’s also created a negative consequence that’s becoming more and more pervasive in our community. It’s something we all need to be aware of each and every time we interact with our dog, and that is rushing to perfection.
A Rush to Perfection
As we watch video after video of adult dogs doing their thing and looking amazing, it’s easy to look at our own dog (whether it be a pup or an adult) and expect immediate perfection. I’ve seen this happen over and over again, and rarely does it turn out well. It’s a really predictable scenario: A new owner pays a large chunk of money for a well-bred dog, brings it home, and immediately expects it to “be a natural.” Maybe they’re trying to justify the purchase price to a spouse or maybe they want to have the next great thing on social media. In any case, their expectations are way too high and will ultimately be a limiting factor for the puppy.
What Happens When We Demand Perfection Too Soon?
It’s been said that “A man’s ego is a terrible burden for a dog to carry,” and I couldn’t agree more. When we demand perfection without putting in the work, it results in us putting pressure on the dog. Pressure on a young dog leads to confusion, and confusion leads to frustration (on both the handler and the dog’s part), and frustration typically results in a downward spiral.
If we think about our own lives and how we learn, it might help us understand what a dog is going through. Imagine, if you will, showing up to a new job with lots of enthusiasm but with zero experience and no training. Immediately, your new boss gives you a difficult and unfamiliar task for you to complete. Of course, you struggle and ultimately fail the task (through no fault of your own). Already frustrated with the situation, your boss then lashes out with criticism, pressure, and expressed disappointment. The vast majority of us, put into this situation, would likely not respond favorably—we all know this is not a great way to teach or inspire a new employee! It’d be much better to give appropriate training, assign achievable tasks, and then provide coaching to make sure the employee was successful. That sounds like a pretty good game-plan for your pup as well: Train the behavior, assign achievable tasks, and provide continual coaching!
When we are saddled with unfair expectations in our own life, we often can change our environment to escape the pressure. But when we do this to our pup and they can’t change their environment, what happens? Typically, what I see is a loss of enthusiasm, decreased work ethic, and in the worst cases completely shutting down. When training ceases to be fun, most puppies are going to choose to not participate (this is the start of that downward spiral). They’ll look for distractions, disengage eye contact, and show disinterest. This is NOT a good learning mindset and will result in the opposite outcome from what was desired.
The best things in life typically take time and can’t be rushed. Dog training is no different—there are no shortcuts and it’s a process. Your dog, although unique and special to you, is still a living creature that will make mistakes, may sometimes disappoint you, and ultimately will take time to develop into the consistent and enthusiastic worker that you envision. And that’s okay!
What Does the Process Look Like?
Each puppy is different, so treating them all the same would be wrong. There are, however, some principles that I apply to every puppy that I work with that help me stay focused on the big picture. I think these principles minimize the chances of burning out a puppy and give it a high likelihood of achieving its full potential. As you read through them, you’ll notice none of these principles mention anything about perfection, eliminating mistakes, or proving to friends that your dog is the greatest.
Find the highest common denominator – When I start working with a puppy, I want to find out what they can do, and use that as my starting point. It might be something really, really simple. As small as making eye contact or jumping on a Cato Board. If that’s the best they have to offer me, that’s where I’ll start. For others, maybe they already have a strong natural retrieve drive and I can start there. The most important thing is that I find what they CAN do, not what I WANT them to do. Once I find that achievable behavior, I use that as my starting point to start teaching more complex behaviors (although I use the word complex cautiously as no behaviors that I teach a pup could be called complex!)
Mistakes are only teaching/learning opportunities – When a puppy fails a task, it is typically because I asked for too much, and that means I need to take a step back and break it down in a way that the puppy can understand. An example of this would be when I start teaching puppies to retrieve through transitions. Eventually, I want them to be able to go out on a retrieve and push through any obstacle they encounter, but to expect that of a puppy is unreasonable. So instead, I break it down for puppies in a way that allows them to learn and be successful. In my backyard I have a lilac bush that I use for this drill. If I take a 12-week-old puppy and throw a retrieve over the bush, most puppies will get hung up hunting around the bush and never make it out to the retrieve. So instead, I’ll throw the retrieve to the side of the bush on mowed grass, so the puppy still has to go past the bush but can see the retrieve. Success! I’ll then progressively throw the retrieve at a closer angle to the bush until eventually I’m throwing directly over the bush. By doing this, the puppy is actually learning how to handle obstacles, but it’s having success throughout the process, which leads to confidence. Don’t have a lilac bush? A large boulder, flower bed, or even a man-made obstacle like your lawn mower works just as well!
Keep them wanting more – I can’t stress this principle enough: Sessions should end on my terms, not on the puppies’ terms. That means I need to anticipate boredom and/or frustration in the puppy BEFORE it happens and stop my session then. If I wait until the puppy decides it’s time to quit, I’ve pushed too hard and likely the session will have been counterproductive to the end goal. Each puppy is different, but for an 8- to 12-week-old puppy, sessions are typically no more than one to two minutes long (and usually no more than once a day). As the puppy matures mentally, I’ll slowly start to stretch the session out, but they’re by no means long. Even with an adult dog, I’d much rather teach one new thing in a two-minute session, then to push a dog until it’s burned out. In the long run, the short sessions will get me to my goals much faster.
Strive for incremental progress – Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your dog’s training isn’t going to be over in a week, a month, or likely even in a year. And that’s okay! Try to enjoy the journey and look for small progress each session. Sometimes that progress is obvious (such as when the pup learns to sit), but other times that progress is less obvious. A pup that’s struggled to focus may have had one of its biggest days when it pauses for a few seconds and makes eye contact with you—count that as progress!
Mistakes happen and perfection is a moving target. If you want to help your pup reach its full potential, you’re going to be most successful if you look at mistakes as an opportunity to reevaluate your approach and find ways to make it easier for your pup to be successful. Keep in mind that perfection is not the goal in every session, but rather finding incremental success and building on that. If you keep this perspective, I promise you’ll have better results in the long run. Good luck!
