Everyone wants immediate results, but no one wants to work at it. Gimmicks and training tools may work, but the result is the same. If the dog does not understand, as soon as the tool goes away, the desired behavior disappears.
The fundamental, core exercise in competition obedience is attention heeling. So, it is no surprise that trainers have developed “tools” to help you. But, is a tool needed? Absolutely not! Is it more work? YES! However, if your dog UNDERSTANDS exactly what is expected of them, they will perform more consistently, under varying conditions. The caveat to this is that YOU as a handler, need to first understand how to teach attention heeling.
There are tons of exceptional trainers out there, who sell a “method”. But, yet, you very rarely see their success duplicated among their students. Why? Because the students do not have the same level of understanding of the method. After awhile, their dog’s heeling doesn’t improve, so they move onto a different method. Unfortunately, the “method” isn’t the problem, it’s the fact that the handler does not know enough about the method to apply it properly. This does not mean the handler doesn’t have a good knowledge of the method or even good training skills, but rather that they do not understand the method well enough to apply it to their own dog. Instead of switching methods, maybe the handler needs to spend more time trying to understand their current method better.
"Knowledge and skill in themselves do not guarantee understanding. People can acquire knowledge and routine skills without understanding their basis or when to use them. And, by and large, knowledge and skills that are not understood do (people) little good!” David Perkins, American Educator: The Professional Journal of the American Federation of Teachers; v17 n3, pp. 8,28-35, Fall 1993.
Now, apply this same reasoning to your dog. If your dog does not “understand” an exercise, you have failed in your training. When our dog performs well, we feel better...about ourself, our dog, and our training ability. So, when we go out and train, especially if someone is watching us, we make sure our dog is successful. There is nothing wrong with failure. Sometimes, we (or our dog) need to fail, in order for us to learn the correct way to do something.
Honestly, when I see someone showing off their dog’s heeling online, my first reaction is to look for a visible cookie or a toy. If the dog is supposedly “trained” and I see one, I stop watching. Granted, if it is a young dog, that is different, but if the dog is TRULY trained and you have a cookie in your hand, you are creating an illusion. An illusion which may look awesome, but it’s still an illusion. Show me a video of your dog’s heeling in competition. Show me a video of your dog working when they KNOW you don’t have a reward on you. The fact that your training partner pulled the toy from behind your back as you were walking into the ring may make you feel better, but really, who are you kidding??
I will pick on my own dog for a moment....my Springer is extremely food driven. His toy drive is fairly low, depending on where we are training. I train with food a lot, regardless of the surroundings. In doing so, I have not done as much proofing with food that I should have. Two weeks ago, while retrieving his dumbbell in competition, he actually set his dumbbell down to check out a leaf that was on the ground (outdoor trial). When he saw it wasn’t food, he quickly picked up the dumbbell and did a beautiful front and finish. Normally, I would NQ myself and give a second command, but I was trying to salvage a UDX leg, so I bit my tongue and let him work it out. But, I knew I would have to address it in practice.
I needed to pull out his errors, which proved to me the lack of “understanding”. Does he know the basics of the job? Yes, he does...he has his OTCH for heaven’s sake. But, he didn’t understand that the same rule applied when the visible cookie was on the floor directly in front of him. We worked through the issue this morning and will probably need to continually revisit the topic.
So, when you are training or learning something new, strive for understanding, not just knowledge. Ask questions. Challenge yourself and your dog. Instead of training for a certain “picture”, train your dog to think on his feet and to work through problems. And, above all, put in the work.
Work hard. Play harder.
Shannon
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