Denise Fenzi's Blog, page 17

Are we having fun yet?

What does positive reinforcement based training mean to you?

For some trainers, it means a lot of cookies and maybe throwing a toy into the mix on occasion.   I see that kind of training a lot. As a matter of fact, it’s the most common type of positive reinforcement training I see and sometimes it doesn’t look like anyone is having much fun at all.  The training appears sterile. Boring.  Quid pro quo – a cookie for a behavior.

Some consider that sterility a benefit because it leads to the faster acquisition of behaviors.  True enough.  On the other hand, it’s hard to express how fantastic you’ll feel at the end of a session where you were genuinely playing with your dog; your buddy!  Your friend who joins you in cool activities that you share with each other!

The more externally you express your happy emotions, the more your dog will learn to look for them.  If you can get your dog addicted to your happy emotions, then your dog will work to elicit them. Teach your dog to work you, not just for food and toys, but for your emotional reactions.  In general, my advice is to look at what your dog is offering naturally in terms of energy and try to match it. Don’t overwhelm your dog! On the other hand, you need to learn to smile!

This approach to training isn’t hard, but you will need to give yourself permission to show on the outside what you’re already feeling on the inside.  Once you get the hang of it, you’ll love it.  It feels good to play with your dog and soon, your dog will start to smile right back at you!  Then it’s almost impossible to stop training because you’ll get addicted to that happy feeling.

It astonishes me to hear well-regarded trainers say that dogs require a paycheck to perform, and then imply that food is the only paycheck that really matters.  Yes, the dog requires a paycheck, but don’t assume food is the only currency.

A high percentage of dogs will work to play and interact, but only if you build and maintain that interest.  If you train as if you have no more value than a food dispenser, then you will remove your dog’s love of interaction, but when you celebrate with your dog, you take advantage of a unique and powerful aspect of dogs: they CARE what you think about them.  When you talk to your dog, they wag their tails because they like to hear your sincere and enthusiastic praise.  When you run around and act silly with your dog, they will join you, especially if you start when they are young and you work to build and maintain that interest.

If you show genuine expressions of joyful emotion, you’ll be surprised how much you can reduce your food and toy rewards.  If you’ve been shoveling out food for years then you’ll struggle with this concept, because now it’s a matter of food deprivation rather than attractive alternatives.  But if you’ve naturally blended the existence of classic rewards (food and toy) with interactive rewards (play and praise) then the issue of deprivation does not arise.  It’s simply varied reinforcement.

Do you have any of your training sessions videotaped?  Let’s take a look.  But this time, don’t look for the quality of the training – look for the joy in the interaction.  If you can’t find it – if you think an outsider would find it boring to watch you – then give that some thought.  Is it time for a change?  If an outsider can’t find the joy, how can your dog?

If you’d like to learn more, I did an entire podcast on this topic.  You can listen for free here:

If you think a bit of additional guidance might help you to develop your playful side, join me for my class at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy that starts on August 1st, called “Relationship Building Thru Play“. There we can explore a wide variety of options to help you become a more playful partner for your dog, whether your beloved pet or highly polished competition dog.  Bronze level costs $65 for six weeks of instruction and the lectures remain in your school library for at least a year; longer if you take more classes.

 

 

 

I have an old dog

I have an old dog.

When did she become old?  Maybe it started with the decline in her manners. Doesn’t she see me standing here as she pulls something out of the trash?!  Maybe, but it doesn’t matter because she knows I won’t enforce the rules and she can’t hear me anyway. I move the trash.

Or maybe it was when I found myself giving her plenty of time to come when called, accepting that she would get to me when she was ready, without making a mental note to myself to “work on that.”

My kids ask me why she’s so much trouble; taking food off their plates, leaking urine through the house, and refusing to budge no matter how inconvenient her resting place might be to the rest of the family.

Because she’s old.

She does not want to learn new skills or practice her old ones.  She wants to go for her walk; a familiar route where she can sniff the same smells each day, often rooted to one spot for minutes at a time, refusing to budge if I try to hurry her along.  So I walk at her speed, stop when she stops, allow her to explore what she wants, and accept that much of her sensory world is lost to me.

Returning after an absence is no longer a significant event.  At best, she gently approaches to welcome me home.  More often, she sleeps through my arrival, oblivious just a few feet from the door. 

After fourteen years I am no longer the focus of her world.  I’m on the periphery of her radar and I cater to her with no expectations in return. The small daily reminders of my presence; my sound as I move though the house or my sight as I pass nearby; those things are diminished.  Instead, she focuses on what she can register easily; vibrations around her. Smells on the ground. A fresh bone to chew.  A toy in the pool.

I accept my more peripheral role as the natural order of things. Instead of looking to me for work or play, she looks to me for access. Access to the pool. Access to the trail where she walks. Access to extra snacks. Access to comfort. If she needs something, she knows I’m available to get it for her.

I’m not sad that our roles have changed but I am sad that our time may be short. We have a rich history, shared from the day of her birth through years of training and competition, spanning the familiar to the new, and with more yet to see.

I read about friend’s dogs that live to sixteen, seventeen or more, and I wonder if that good fortune might be for me.  I’d like to think so.

Now I watch her fold into herself, absorbed in whatever is right in front of her at any given moment, single tracking though what will be the final days, weeks or years of her life.

I’m grateful that I have an old dog because I know that one day I won’t have her at all.

Solving a behavior problem in my home

I am not a dog “behavior” trainer; I train dogs for competition dog sports, and I limit my behavior training to within that realm. For example, dogs that stress up, stress down, uncomfortable with the stand for exam, etc; that’s my territory. House manners? Barking at your guests? Not so much – there are better trainers with a richer knowledge base to talk to about stuff like that.

But I do have three dogs, and they are pets that live in my house. That means that, on occasion, I’m going to have to teach them something that falls within the behavior realm so that we can live together peacefully,

Since this conversation is at the top of my mind right now, I’ll describe a behavior challenge that I’m addressing now, just in case it gives someone else an idea for handling a behavior issue in their own home.

Here’s my situation: Lyra eats outside, Brito eats in his pen, and Raika eats in the kitchen. This works well since Lyra and Brito eat quite fast, and Raika needs time to finish her meal in peace.

The problem occurs when Lyra comes back into the house after being outside. She tends to “explode” through the door and rush through the house, eventually ending in the kitchen, to see if there is anything left in Raika’s bowl. This explosion happens a foot from Brito’s pen which, in turn, turns him into a Terrier tiger; he screams at her. This sequence is not attractive to listen to and raises the energy level and overall “edge” in the house. That, in turn, causes Raika to rush at lyra as she comes through the door – ever the fun police – and because Raika is old she really shouldn’t be rushing anywhere or antagonizing anyone. Finally…to complete the circle…being rushed at/body blocked stresses Lyra so she rushes around even faster than she would have otherwise, further antagonizing Brito…

Until now I’ve managed the problem reasonably well. I open the door and let Lyra in, simultaneously reaching for Brito’s pen door. That distracts him from his screaming past the “trigger” moment. If I also hold off letting Brito out of his pen for another minute, then we’re good to go. If Raika is being particularly feisty, I tell her to stay on a carpet nearby before letting Lyra in.

But…there’s a problem. My family doesn’t seem able (or willing) to master the needed chain of events, and order matters.

I could be the only one who lets the dog in, or….find another way that is easier on the non-trainers of the family, which is pretty much everyone except me.

So what to do?  I need to stop Brito from screaming when the door opens and also condition Lyra to come in more calmly.

To begin, I have to figure out what happens immediately before the problem behavior and address that. If analogies help you, it’s the same as handling human habits that people want to change. If you want to change your bad habits, you’ll want to figure out what happens immediately before the bad habit takes place, and substitute an alternative behavior to create a new behavior chain that is more functional for you.

Here’s a highly simplified and brief human example: You always eat an unhealthy snack when you watch TV, and you are developing health problems that would benefit from a change in your eating habits (You have some motivation to change.) First, change the environment… avoid unhealthy snacks in the house. Second, create a new chain…substitute another activity at the time you would normally watch TV/eat a snack. Even a short walk around the block might do the trick if the timing is predictable – break the cycle. Or substitute popcorn for your unhealthy snack. Or…. whatever works for you, but remember that whatever you do has to take place before you exercise the problem behavior; afterward is too late (being mad at yourself for eating the unhealthy snack accomplishes relatively little). Finally, appreciate how well you are doing!

Changing dog behavior is the same.

The question is:  What do I need to do immediately before opening the door to prevent the combination of Brito screaming in his pen and Lyra rushing through the door that is easy for the rest of my family to implement?

Solution: When Raika is done eating, have the “Human Door Opener” pick up her bowl and bring it as they approach the door to let Lyra in the house. Drop Raika’s empty bowl into Brito’s pen, and let Lyra in. Unclip Brito’s pen at any point you want. Go back to what you were doing.

Brito spends the next 15 seconds licking imaginary food out of the bowl, Lyra has stopped rushing for the kitchen because there’s no bowl to find, and by the time Brito wanders out of his pen 15 seconds later, there’s just nothing to get excited about.

No one has to listen to Brito scream, Raika is not harassing Lyra and Lyra has no motivation to rush through the door. Problem solved.

Obviously, there are other solutions that would’ve worked as well, but this works for our situation.

The interesting thing about behavior is that each situation is unique. Where’s your crate in relation to the door? Where do the dogs eat? What’s the problem? Who are the humans involved?

Take a look at the entire picture, figure out what happens immediately before the problem occurs, and see if you can substitute a new pattern.  There are a lot of solutions; pick one so that the problematic habits don’t get worse!

What habit do your dogs have that you would like to change?  Can you think of a solution that will work for your family with minimal fuss?

Balancing games and precision in heeling

I love precision heeling.  I love seeing a dog heel with a perfectly parallel body, not moving out of position even an inch, pulling up on the left turns and powering through to the right.

I also love heeling games!  I love how they add energy, flow, and confidence to my dog’s work while simultaneously reducing my use of food and toy reinforcers.

The contradiction between these two activities is real. Heeling games is about the release of pressure and adding enthusiasm while precision heeling is about control and mental engagement.

So how does one combine them?

There’s actually a useful trick, so let’s talk about it now.

Heeling games generally start and end from heel position. For example, you send your dog out and around the cone and then your dog powers back into position as fast as possible. That moment when your dog shows up a few inches behind heel position? That’s a critical moment! You need to know exactly what you’re going to do when your dog shows up there, and your decision should reflect and counterbalance your dog’s natural tendencies.   In addition, whatever decision and movements you make should happen at the exact instant that will cause your dog to be correct rather than allowing them to be wrong.

For example, your dog is prone to enthusiastic forging.   You send your dog around the cone, and as your dog powers back into position, you know that there’s a pretty good chance your dog will end up forged, at least for a second or two, before they settle back into their precision work.

When your dog is a few inches behind position is when you want to take action! Rather than maintaining a steady forward flow (which will encourage forging) you need to do something! You can make a left turn/slow. You can pull to the right, or you can simply halt. All of these options will have the same effect; when your dog is a few inches behind heel position and returning from a game, your dog will think. And that is the exact moment when you need your dog to think!

A winner!

But what if your dog is soft and prone to lagging? What if your dog never powers up into position?

The first piece is the same. The moment you need to identify is a few inches before your dog gets back into position. But the decision you’re going to make now is quite different; you want to make your dog think about hurrying up rather than pulling back! For example, you might quickly move onto a right circle, perform a right turn or even a fast pace of heeling. All of those options will cause your dog to think when they are about three or four inches behind heel position, and encourage your dog to make a good choice to drive ahead.

But, and here’s an important part…. we need success!   So not only will your dog see a behavior that encourages hurrying when she’s a few inches behind position, it needs to be a behavior that motivates her to speed up. For example, toss a cookie forward! Or ask for a hand touch in front of heel position, and then reinforce that with a cookie. Or, as you speed up, make a right turn or an about turn, cheerfully encouraging with a verbal, “go go go go!”

The ticket is to prevent your dog from being wrong by making your decision before the dog has made an error.

The following video applies these concepts in a slightly more advanced version.  After the individual elements have been reinforced quite a bit on their own, I’m combining elements to see what I have -letting Brito do some thinking and winning on his own.

Brito’s natural tendency is to hang back, so notice that everything I do is designed to encourage him to think about pushing forward.   I begin by quickly turning away and accelerating forward –  and then I move out towards the right.   As he stays with me, I tighten up the circle more and more so he has to put out even more effort to stick with me.   I then ask him to move through my legs to my opposite side… that encourages him to be up in position or even slightly ahead!   And when he arrives on the other side? I instantly switch my direction so that he’s wrapping around my leg and once again…pushing forward.

In this way, I am combining the games of informal starts, through my legs, and hand touches with the precision of heeling.  Plenty of games to engage him in what we’re doing, and plenty of reasons to think and pay attention as well (precision)!

TONIGHT at 6pm PT I will be teaching my webinar on heeling games. This webinar is perfectly well suited to people with no heeling at all AND people with very advanced heeling skills.

I hope some of you will join me! Tuition is $19.95 and they generally run about two hours, including question and answer time.  You can watch as many times as you want for the next year and you do not need to be present for the live version.

Read more about the heeling games webinar HERE and then GET REGISTERED!

A simple heeling game

Heeling games are things that we do to increase our dog’s drive and enthusiasm for heeling.   Dogs can learn heeling games even if they have no heeling at all; indeed, probably the best time to teach heeling games is roughly when you are teaching precision heeling skills.

This video shows a very simple heeling game that is equally well-suited to an eight-week-old puppy as an experienced worker.  You can use this technique to “whip” a puppy into position OR use it to begin heel work with a fully trained dog who works better without formal starts.

This is one of the techniques that I will present in my Heeling Games webinar on Thursday night at 6 pm PT.

The cost is $19.95 for approximately one hour of formal presentation and an informal Q and A afterward.  You don’t have to attend live if that doesn’t work for you, but you do need to register before it runs since FDSA does not sell webinars “after the fact”.  If you want to watch it later, it will be waiting for you in your Webinar Library at FDSA.

You can read more about the webinar HERE and register HERE.

Grab a snack and a tasty drink and join me!  Oh, and your questions; bring those too!

In my next blog I’ll address the question…how does one add the games to formal work without ruining one’s heeling?

 

Your Place on the Radar: Near 100%

In my last blog I talked about “making your dog’s radar”.

Now I’d like to talk about how much you might want to be on your dog’s radar under different circumstances and your options for adjusting that using dog-friendly methods.

Here are a few broad categories to help structure your thinking.

100% radar – no alternative focus. You are dead center on your dog’s radar, and your dog is dead center on yours.

50% balance between you (and what you have to offer) and the world.

50% balance between you (and what you have to offer) and alternative sources of intense focus, like obstacles in agility or the helper in protection work or stock in herding.  This is a bit of a misnomer because it’s quite likely that the dog flips back and forth between intense focus in each direction, keeping the alternative on the periphery, but work with me here….

0% sound asleep!

Because this is a concept there’s no reason for me to refine it more than that; simply recognize that there are a thousand variations on this theme.  For example, at any given moment, a sheepdog may be giving 80% focus to the sheep and 20% to you, and then that might flip 90% to you and 10% to the sheep, etc.  Honestly, I cannot think of any reason to put in the time to try to figure out EXACTLY  how much focus the dog has in one direction or another. What matters is that you have a basic rough idea of where the dog’s focus needs to be at any given time and an idea of how you might get there, if you have concerns about the current state of affairs

So. How will you get there?

In this blog, we’ll talk about those times when you want 100% focus; intense training on a skill when it’s all about you at the center of the radar!   This would also cover generic skill training in sports like agility, or even task training for service dogs because within those training moments, the dog really is focused on you 90% of the time and only 10% on a possible external focus (like going over a jump or picking up the object for the handler).  Long-term, that will adjust to less handler focus, but not in the skill training phase.

But before we get to the dog, take a moment to ask yourself if the dog is on the center of YOUR radar.  It’s fine to say that your dog, husband, spouse or child should care what you think, but your odds of success aren’t too good if their experience is that you aren’t giving them 100% attention. Start where you have control; yourself.  Where is your focus?   If for any particular reason you cannot give your dog 100% on this day and at this time, don’t train.   You’re better off not training at all then creating long-term bad habits caused by your own issues.

Feel pretty good about you? Are you giving your dog 100% in intense training events – dead center on your radar? Nothing for the instructor, a book, etc?  Excellent!  Let’s continue…

Let’s consider the dog.

100% focus –  What do you have that absolutely magnetizes your dog? Water from the hose? Your dog’s meals?  The opportunity to work in a highly desired sport? A highly valued toy?  The best treats?  You’re well on your way!  Tie those things to what you want your dog to do for you. Snappy sit?  Spray the garden house!  Lovely front?  A delicious piece of steak!  You get the idea.

But..even with those amazing resources, you find that in some places, your dog cannot give you 100%…what then?

You have asked too much – the environment is too difficult for your dog at this time; you are NOT the center of the radar!   You are competing with something else of interest!

Now I’m going to tell you the most important thing, the secret sauce, so listen carefully….

Your dog will develop a habit of giving a certain amount of energy, so every time you allow your dog to work with you when you are not at the center of the radar, it becomes your dog’s habit, so simply don’t allow it to happen! If you don’t want your dog to get in the habit of working at 80%, only work in places that your dog wants to make you the center of the radar! You will find that over time, a combination of habit and an ever growing love of the work (and whatever it is you are offering to get your dog to 100%) takes care of the rest.

Like people, dogs develop habits of attention or inattention.  Under circumstances where you want your dog to have a habit of paying attention to you, for example, when you head into the training yard with your dog, you want your dog to have a habit of knowing what is coming and automatically shifting their focus to 100%.  It’s fine to do things to help your dog get to 100%, like using environmental acclimation or low-key play, but training is not one of them.

But wait, there’s even more!  When your dog gets to the point where he has a habit of giving you 100% and you are thrilled with the results, ask yourself, how are you getting that focus? Let’s say you are using steak because that is what got your dog motivated six months ago when you started this process, and now your dog 100% absolutely positively loves to work! So the new question becomes this… Are you sure you need steak to stay at the center of the radar? Is it possible that the combination of habit, maturity, and a growing love of work means that you could downgrade to tasty dog treats?

It actually matters that you do not over motivate your dog beyond what you really need, and there are a few ways to accomplish that.  Either ask your well-trained dog to work longer for each amazing thing, make the environment more difficult so the dog actually has to work harder for the amazing thing, or downgrade the quality of the reinforcement to something less amazing while maintaining a high rate of reinforcement,

Did anyone notice that I did not include personal play or praise on my list of valuable motivators?   That’s because in my experience, those things do not magnetize a dog at 100%.   Which doesn’t mean I don’t use them… As a matter of fact, I use them a ton. But I use them to develop my general relationship with my dog – my place on the periphery of the radar as an interesting and valuable part of my dog’s life.

For example, BEFORE  I get out that amazing cookie, or the hose, or the toy, I start the process of engaging my dog up to 100% a teeny tiny ratchet at a time. I might take a dog who is sound asleep in the house, and move them to the center of the radar by talking about how much fun we are going to have together! THAT is the time when you want to apply your personal play and praise! Build up the excitement towards what you’re going to do together! But once you actually start training? Where you want 100%? Make sure that the reinforcer you are using can actually get you there – and by all means, combine your praise and play with that amazing reinforcer! Now, if you have one of those unusual dogs that will work at 100% for a chance to play, then, of course, you should use it, but it will not be a realistic expectation for the vast majority of dogs. That is nothing to worry about.  When we talk about training at 0 – 50% we’ll talk more about play and praise….and how those influence your chance to remain on the periphery at all times.

Soon we’ll talk about moving from 100% to….less!

Making the Radar

Recently I was talking with a group of people about how I trained my neighbor’s free-roaming dog not to come through her gate and harass me and my dog.

First I tried talking nicely to the dog. That had no effect.

Second, I tried crossing the street. That seemed promising until I almost got her hit by a car. I don’t want that.

Third, I went and talked to the owner. I was perfectly calm. I discovered that the owner is about 80+ years old and clueless. I recognized that the conversation was going nowhere so I gave up on that option.

Finally, I decided to train the dog using a pressure release system.

Someone is going to want to understand what I did, so here it is in a nutshell: Turn and face directly and verbally harass, move forward until the dog looked at me – stop verbal harassment with the mutual eye contact. Hard eye contact and frontal pressure until the dog backed off; stop hard eye contact and frontal pressure when the dog backed off. Within a couple of days she was charging but looking at me- at that point standing still and staring was enough to stop her. Wait a few seconds with the pressure on, and she would turn and leave – remove pressure and move on myself. I continued on this path until just a slight turn in her direction would cause her to stop, turn and move away from me.

In effect, when she did what I wanted, I released the “biggest” source of pressure. For example, eye contact with me released the verbal pressure. Turning away released the physical pressure. Walking off caused me to move on.  After a couple of weeks, it was done.  I have no issues walking by that house anymore.  She starts to charge; I briefly turn and look at her and she recognizes me – and she moves off.

After I explained this basic procedure, a series of questions followed.  “Would it work if…” and then a range of scenarios….enthusiastic dog, truly aggressive dog, different breeds of dog, if my dog were reactive, etc. and the thing I came to realize is that it all boils down to one thing – are YOU on the dog’s radar?  The one that you want to influence with your presence?  So let’s talk about that because at the end of the day, no training can take place with a dog if the dog doesn’t even know that you exist.  It doesn’t matter if it’s your dog or your neighbor’s dog – you have to register on the radar. Training comes after.

If the dog is hyper-focused on your dog and oblivious to you? You cannot train that dog.  If it’s your own dog and it’s behaving aggressively towards something “out there” with no awareness of you? You cannot train your own dog.  If the dog is super excited about something; anything – your own dog or someone else’s, and it is throwing itself in that direction?  You cannot train that dog either.  If you’re not on the radar, you’re powerless.

You have no influence until the dog has registered your existence. Your own dog.  Your friend’s dog.  Your neighbor’s dog. Incidentally, this is just as true of people; trying to instruct or interact with another who is oblivious to you isn’t going to work.  At best it will make you irritable and at worst it will ruin your self-esteem, so you might as well stop trying; get on the radar first and worry about the goal of the interaction later.

There are many ways to get on the radar. You can use cookies, toys, play, pleasant or unpleasant verbal interaction, physical personal pressure, applied pain or really…anything that gets the dog off of whatever they are doing (possibly just sleeping or maybe charging madly after a deer) and aware of your existence.

But…that’s not enough!  Not only do you need to show up on the radar, you need to show up the right amount, depending on what you want next.

In some cases, you want to be the center. 100%! That is the level of engagement most of us want when we are training a skill like heeling, where we really do want the dog oblivious to most everything.

But how about a sport like agility, protection or herding, where you need the dog multitasking and splitting their attention between you and something else which is specific and “out there”, like equipment or livestock?  The handler still needs to be on the radar but not smack dab in the center. Now we want the split to be something like 50/50% – specific to you and the equipment/livestock, but not inclusive of the environment.

And how about a service dog? The dog may need to be working all day long with you clearly on the radar, but resting most of the time in order not to become exhausted.  In that case, the dog needs to be able to turn on and off as needed; always slightly aware of you and the general environment but without the energy draining focus of many dog sports.

How about basic behavior in life and within your household? I’m pretty sure my dogs always know where I am in the house. I register for them, but as a fringe element.  And as a result, I can quickly and easily influence their behavior (call them to me, ask them to go outside, etc.) as needed.

In most discussions of training, we’re talking about being the center of focus – the center of the radar. We talk about focus training and engagement and we work hard to gain a huge amount of value to our dogs so that we have most or all of their mental energy.

But life is much more than structured training, and being ‘somewhere on the radar,’ is important because your dog will develop a habit of considering your opinion (and support) when making random life choices. It’s just like a person!  if I am aware that one of my family members is sleeping, studying or talking on the phone somewhere in the house, I will make an effort to be a little quieter….and if I think a strange person is trying to break into my house?  My first thought is going to be…who else is in the house?  That will influence what happens next.  And my dogs?  Very likely the same.  While I doubt it occurs to them to be quiet when I’m on the phone, I am quite sure that if someone were trying to break in, they would behave differently if I were home than if not.  Should they let me know a stranger is trying to enter or act on their own volition?   If I’m not on the radar, that wouldn’t be a part of the equation, which would be quite unfortunate.

It matters that your dog knows they can turn to you if they are unsure – you’re on the radar.  It matters if your dog is aware that you have an opinion about their behavior in public or in the house – it will gain you natural cooperation even when you have nothing tangible to give. It also matters because it’s the basis of relationship; not the cookies or corrections or training or many other things that are a very minor part of the actual minutes of life.

It also matters that both the dog and the handler can shift their focus so that the “other” is sometimes at the center of the radar and sometimes on the periphery, but always there…

This relationship….the more you exist somewhere on the radar most of the time, the more relationship you have.  It may be a positive relationship or it may be otherwise, but it’s an awareness of…the first step before considering whether or not to take the “others” opinions, power or support into account. How much you’re on the radar at any given time is strictly contextual; more is not better.  Just ‘enough’ so that awareness can skyrocket to 100% – if that becomes appropriate.

Too much you on the radar and your dog will miss the world – and maybe they need to be seeing the world!  For example, a dog working on problematic reactivity that is staring at you isn’t learning anything useful. But how about too little? A dog working on reactivity that isn’t aware of you may well miss what you have to offer in terms of support or education!

If you find that your dog is struggling with you in training or in general life or in behavior training, check how much each of you is on the radar for the other.

In a future blog, I’ll talk about how much you might want to adjust your presence on the radar under different circumstances, and how you might change your behavior to get there.

 

Setting goals

I recently asked a few people to set some goals for themselves. And they did!

Big, general, enthusiastic stretch goals! Lots of goals! All the goals!

Does that sound like you?

I don’t do that. I don’t like big goals. They overwhelm me. Depress me. Make me feel like not starting at all, let alone trying to finish.

I like little goals. Teeny tiny goals! And then I put my goals on a list, and get through as many of them by the end of the day as possible. My goal is not to finish the list. It’s to get lots of things checked off!

Here is an example with the laundry. My list looks like this:

turn dirty clothes inside out

wash clothes

dry clothes

put clothes away.

I do that because each one of those is a discrete task for me. I don’t need to do them all at once, and indeed, it would be hard to do that, since it takes time for clothes to wash and dry.

Now when evening comes and I see that I have accomplished two out of four steps, I feel pretty good about things. No failure at all! Tomorrow I will meet the final two goals.

If, on the other hand, my list for the day simply had “laundry” on it then I don’t get to check it off. That’s not much fun at all.

On those occasions when I set very specific goals for my dogs, I break them down into smaller pieces. I do that because I want to meet as many of my goals as I can, and I like checking things off the list.

I’m not really saying you should do that. People respond to lists and goals differently, and eventually, you know what is best for yourself. But if you find yourself setting huge lumps of goals, and then you get depressed when you do not succeed, try setting realistic goals. Small goals!

Success breeds success. That’s just the way it works, both for dogs and for people.

Stretch goals are fine…set them for your long-term plan if you find that helpful, but when it comes to daily or weekly goals? See what happens if you break your goals down into lots of tiny pieces, and then check them off as you reach them. You might be amazed at the difference in your attitude when you start routinely succeeding. Indeed, you might discover that success becomes your new habit.

Nowhere in the definition of goal does it say it has to be hard to attain. So why not get in the habit of setting goals that you can meet, and on occasion, quite possibly exceed?

A worthy goal.

Ask me anything!

Yesterday I answered questions for two hours; people were told that they could ask me anything. And they did! If you’d like to take a look, click the following thread through to Reddit.

Ask Me Anything with Denise Fenzi – LIVE from r/k9sports

Empathy and Behavior Change

Many years ago I sat in on a behavior consult with Trish King.  She spent 90 minutes listening to and supporting a very unhappy woman who wanted to talk about her long list of woes.  Honestly, I found her hard to take; I had this overwhelming urge to tell her to grow up,  take some responsibility for her situation, and stop whining.

Her neighbors hated her because her dogs were barking excessively. Her house smelled horrible because they were peeing all over the place. She was scared of being evicted from her complex,  frustrated with the dogs, and angry at pretty much everyone. She just wanted it to stop.

90 minutes. 90 minutes Trish spent listening to that childish woman rant. 90 minutes, and never a mention of how to fix the dogs. And at the end of that 90 minutes? The woman was done.  She had said all she needed to say.  She felt heard, supported and ready – for the next step.

From there, it only took 30 minutes to give the woman a plan to work with her dog.  The steps were relatively simple; now she needed to implement them.

It didn’t matter how the dogs got in this boat; what mattered was that a seriously distressed human wasn’t going to hear anyone or anything until she was ready.  And that took….90 minutes.

When people are frustrated, angry and resentful, they cannot learn.  Their defense mechanisms step up from every direction and ensure that any hint that they have made mistakes cannot come to the fore.  Being right and telling your human learner the things you need to say are a waste of time until they are ready to hear you.

Start with your human. Get them on your team.

That consult made a huge impression on me.  I still think about it to this day, and it has influenced all of my training since that time.   I owe Trish for that.