People tell me all the time, "Well she does great at home but she's so bad in
public" Usually this means a stressed-out, embarrassed owner and a stressed-out,
whacky acting dog. But it doesn't need to be that way. At the core this is a
rehearsal problem, so today we'll look at how to design a training progression and
circumvent the craziness.
Ian' here with Simpawtico Dog Training, and before we discuss progressions,
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Now a training progression is a gradual transition made up of small, practical
steps. Here you see a nice gradient where easy phases into difficult, where low
distraction phases into high distraction, where unskilled phases into skilled. This
is the optimal training model. This ensures maximum confidence and stability
in a variety of situations. However, most people do their dog training abruptly,
like this. Or not even that; they'll just go straight for the drop kick like this.
What I see happening a lot is that owners rehearse very little, if at all,
and then jump right into taking the show on the road.
They start training in highly distracting environments and predictably
this leads to frustration and stress for both the dog and the owner. At this point
many owners start applying pressure. They start shouting and reprimanding, they buy
prong collars and head halters, they pop and punish and try to force the
compliance. This increases stress and stress chemicals both impede learning,
increase fatigue, and act as analgesics— painkillers—which render the pressure
less effective. So then you have to apply more pressure, and then you get into this
feedback loop of behavior and stress. Over time this can lead to a whole host
of well-documented problems including dependency on the tools, generalized
inhibition, residual stress, and even physical injuries. Nobody learns very
well like that. You wouldn't tolerate a boss that did that to you and you
wouldn't tolerate a teacher or coach doing that to your child. You can
short-circuit this whole scenario by just doing more work on the front end.
Understand that when you change the picture it takes time for the mind to
adapt to a new scenario. We want to make changes gradually over time so that the
adjustments are small. We help a dog understand how to adapt, help them
identify what parts stay the same, and teach them to defer to us if they're
unsure. That's hard too because most people don't even really know what to do,
which leads us to an inconvenient truth: most owners need to practice as much as
their dogs do. You've got to come at it the same way an athlete would. We don't
teach people how to play basketball at the playoffs. First they learn
fundamental skills in a new environment. Here we focus on motor
skills, muscle memory, and positive motivation. Then as they improve we add
new layers such as working with teammates, playing against opposing teams,
and then doing it in front of crowds. This is a training gradient. And truth be
told there are way more small steps in between that aren't even represented
here. If dribbling was weak or layups were sloppy for example, those pieces
would be isolated and drilled until they were stronger. Only then would they be
integrated back into the larger picture. Any musician, artist, or skilled
professional will tell you the same thing.
Actors learned it this way; surgeons learned it this way; even restaurant
servers learned their jobs in a training progression, in a gradient of successive
benchmarks. As we've said, many dog owners skip this whole process. This is learning
the game at the playoffs, this is learning to drive a car on the freeway,
this is memorizing your lines on opening night! Remember we want motor skills,
muscle memory, and positive motivation. You only get those through support,
encouragement, practice, and repetition. To help you start to visualize this, here's
a basic skeleton for a training progression: cultivate engagement and
communication; develop motor skills in a neutral environment; practice for mastery
and muscle memory; layer on distractions and/or slowly change the
environment; reevaluate, then stick with your criteria, move it up, or drop it down.
Here are some sample progressions for you to take into consideration and to
illustrate a couple of practical training gradients. Walking on leash as
we pointed out is probably the most egregious example of gradient abuse.
People tend to try and teach their dogs in the very environment they have to be
a pro in. If you followed along this far you know that this is madness. First we
need to teach our dogs our communication system and to engage with us with energy.
Training should be a fun problem-solving exercise. Then we need to teach the
requisite skills in a neutral environment without squirrels, joggers,
delivery men, or other dogs. Here is where we work out the kinks. We build muscle
memory by getting all the mechanical elements correctly in place. And then we
practice a bunch. This doesn't happen in an afternoon. This is a daily thing for
several weeks. Next, we gradually layer on distractions.
Then we move out onto the driveway for a while.
Then, onto the street in front of the house. Finally when your dog is killing
it, start taking the show on the road. If your dog struggles, you go back to a
stage where they were more successful and work there for a little longer
before attempting a more difficult level again. This not only helps your dog learn
more completely what to do but also any training aids you choose to integrate
into your system such as collars or leashes or halters will be more
effective with less effort. And then you can phase out the training aids instead
of them being lifelong dependencies. We use similar progressions for a
challenging behavior like sit for petting. First we teach the individual
motor skills in a neutral environment. The prerequisites are that the dog is
already familiar with targeting, sit and understands how to work on the leash.
Then we assemble the components with a neutral, non-reactive helper. Adding a
person is stimulating so it would be madness to practice it with strangers.
You need this to be someone who can just be quiet and still. Then you practice in
new environments with new helpers. Then you ramp up the stakes. By now it ought
to be muscle memory so you can start attempting this in other situations. You
see how this works? It's gradual, it's small steps and it builds in layers. If you try
to take a new dog right out into the neighborhood without any rehearsal,
without any practice, or without even introducing them to the expectations you
will run into problems. Don't blame your dog for that; it's your fault. Don't make
excuses like, "Oh she's a shepherd," or "Oh he's a terrier," or "Oh they're really
stubborn." No. You're rushing it, you're forcing it, you're causing it. Dogs only
know what we teach them. And remember it's not pressure makes perfect; its
practice makes perfect. Now if you're watching this and you're saying yourself
"Wow I really screwed up," it's not too late. If you're struggling with something
you can always drop back down and spend time in rehearsals. Break it down into
manageable blocks and reteach. Get it looking good before moving up to a more
difficult environment. Use this rule of thumb: doing just okay? Keep practicing
where you're at. Doing excellent? Make it harder.
Struggling? Make it easier. Alright everyone.
I hope this has helped you get thinking about how to design intelligent and
effective training progressions. On our website we have a list of sample
training progressions for common behaviors. Check out our Learning Center
for those and more training secrets, and we'll link to that in the description as
well. Now questions for you: what are some of the behaviors you're struggling with
and how has this video got you thinking about your progression redesign? Let me
hear from you in those comments. In the meantime, don't forget to thumbs up this
video and as always keep learning, keep practicing, and we'll see you next time.
Thanks for watching!