Dog training Secret – Progressions and Rehearsals are the KEY!
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!
