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Criteria and Consistency
Rachel Flatley, owner of Pawsitively Fun Dog Training Group
Hi all! As this is my first column for your group, I suppose I should take a moment to tell you about me in hopes that you
will agree that it might be worthwhile for you to read on. My background is in training horses, chickens, pheasants, fish, rats,
cats and dogs; basically, anything I could get my hands on as a kid growing up in rural Long Island. I went to college and
furthered that understanding while earning a degree in psychology. I took a detour to law school and moved to South Florida to
work as an attorney. My hobby and part-time job was dog training and competition. Eighteen months ago, I re-prioritized and now
I train dogs for a living. While there are some of the "performance breeds" present on my student roster, my student base largely
consist of breeds which don't readily come to mind when you think of a breed of dog which would likely be winning canine performance sports.
I am fortunate to regularly work with dogs from the following breeds: Pug, Bulldog, Chihuahua, Shiba Inu, Bassenji, West Highland Terrier,
Chinese Crested, Cairn Terrier, Great Dane, Canaan Dog, Olde English Bulldog, Cocker Spaniel, American Eskimo, Mastiff, Maltese, Lhasa Apso
and Springer Spaniel. My dog training and showing career began with Boston Terriers. For multiple years I achieved National recognition
with them both in obedience and agility. Then I discovered the utility of a rescue Border Collie and added sheep herding, tracking, and
frisbee to my resume'. Now I have two Border Collies and a Papillion puppy, but there is no doubt I have a soft spot for anything with
a "pushed-in" nose!
Getting back to my students, the Chihuahua began competing in agility 3 months ago. She has earned four agility titles.
The Westie from my group began competing 4 months ago and has completed 5 agility titles. The Shiba began in January and has
completed 2 agility titles. All three have oodles of blue ribbons. Why? Besides the fact that I know how to motivate dogs,
these handlers know the value of two words: "criteria" and "consistency".
"Criteria" is the term I use to describe what behavior you have deemed as "cookie worthy". In other words, if you ask for a behavior,
what performance does the dog need to give you in order to earn a cookie? This sounds simple, but it is far from it! Let's take a
simple behavior like "sit". You tell your dog to "sit" and it does so on the first command. Does it get a cookie? "Of course!", you say.
I say, "Maybe; maybe not." Before I dole out that cookie, I have considered the answers to a series of questions. Was the sit quick enough?
Or, was the dog doing its imitation of a poor hydrolic system? Was it straight? Did the dog sit squarely on its butt, or is one leg tucked
under in a "sloppy sit" or "puppy sit"? In fact, these are all questions I need to have considered before I ever asked the dog to "sit".
Before I utter, "sit" I need to have a criterion clearly visualized in my head. For example, for the dog I plan to compete with in obedience,
I am picturing my dog sitting on the first command, getting into position promptly and sitting squarely on its butt. That's the only performance
I am going to reward so, hopefully in the future, that is the only performance I will get. Of course your criteria (mental picture) might be
different than mine and that is the wonderful thing about dog training; it allows for varied performance goals. The clearer you are about your
criteria, the better you will be able to communicate to your dog what it is that you want them to do. The direct result is that your dog will
be better able to give you what you want. They love clear communication. Don't we all? It's so much easier than guessing what your partner wants!
The other nice thing about having a clear criteria for a behavior is that it makes the handler's delivery of the reward
(cookie, toy, praise, petting) much more prompt. That means the dog is more likely to link the performance to the reward and is
therefore, more likely to repeat the performance.
"Consistency" describes the handler's application of the criteria. The more consistent the handler is with their mental picture/criteria,
the happier the dog and, the more consistent, or "better trained", the dog is. No matter how hard we try, we are not likely to be 100% consistent.
However, we can all strive to be as close to 100% consistent as possible. Day in and day out I get called to people's homes for private lessons where
I work with people who are stunned to learn that they do not have a belligerent or "untrainable" dog but that they, themselves, are the source of the
problem. My favorite example of this is the person who enrolls their dog in obedience class. Their shoulders and back hurt and they are simply fed up
with the dog which takes them on walks every day. They come into the training area and work diligently to teach the dog where they want it to position
itself while they "heel". They make progress. When class is over, they allow the dog to pull them to the car. Because the handler was not consistent,
the dog learned that walking nicely on the leash is only important/necessary while at class. In 60 seconds, the handler "un-taught" the 20 minutes of
"heeling" training they just did. What of the dog with a "stay" problem? I often am called to work with the person who can't get their dog to stay at
the start line of an agility run or to stay during the group stays in an obedience trial. After observing them at home and asking questions, I learn that
this handler also unintentionally undoes her hard "stay" work. At home, in every day life, this woman prepares to leave for work each morning. The routine
is always the same. She grabs her purse and car keys. Hearing the keys jingle, the dog comes running and, as the owner begins to open the door to leave,
she realizes the dog may bolt through the door to go with her. She turns to the dog and tells it to "sit, stay". The dog complies and she slips through
the door and is off to work. The dog "sit, stays" for some period of time and then eventually gives up. The dog just learned that it is not the handler who decides when the "stay" is over,
but the dog. Why shouldn't it feel free to make the same decision when it is competing? The handler taught it to.
As the title of my upcoming book warns......"Practice Makes Perfect.....NOT! Perfect Practice Makes Perfect."
I hope this gives you some food for thought on how to become a better trainer/communicator to your dog or, better yet,
helps you problem solve in an area of training where you had been struggling.
You may also like to read....
Are You a Vending Machine or a Slot Machine?
Your Dog is Speaking. Are You Listening?
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