Give the Gift of Clarity (You know what I mean)

If I had a dollar for every time I watched someone get frustrated with their dog’s (belligerence, stupidity, sulky nature, laziness, unwillingness) inability to understand the requirement and perform to specification I would be rich. The trainer honestly believes the requirements have been clearly communicated to the dog.

My first class on my first day of college, I was handed a blue book and told to write. I was a cocky teenager, sure of my abilities. Two days later my assignment was returned. My written words were blanketed with red circles and comments, clearly having fallen far short of the mark. Over the course of that semester I learned to write by learning how to read my work as the reader. Writing is putting words to an idea, building our thoughts into a transferable structure. Writing is communication. Sounds trite, but we tend to forget that the essence of good communication is framing our thoughts so they can be understood by someone who is not already thinking them. When we read our own words we already know the thoughts they describe. We read what we think we said. One of the greatest gifts of intelligence is a curse when reviewing our own work. Our minds constantly interpret incoming information, skimming the data, assigning meaning, and building it into thoughts and concepts. This relentless interpretive process is what allows us to carry on conversations, quickly evaluate a situation, and recognize shapes that are not clearly formed. Ideally we pace the interpretation to match the speed of the information we receive. When we form the new information into concepts too quickly we jump to conclusions, too slowly we lose our ability to respond in real time. In the case of reviewing our own work our mind is primed with far more information than any other reader. A loose group of words seems sufficient to describe our thoughts completely, because the thoughts are already there. It can be frustrating to explain a concept that is fully formed in our mind to another person. The words we put forth in our argument seem more than enough to describe the reality that we are living. The other person can seem deliberately obtuse. Whenever you hear the classic words “You know what I mean” you are likely hearing someone who has described their thoughts with a handful of words, sufficient only to another person who is currently engaging in the same thought process as the speaker.

So how does writing apply to dog training? It doesn’t. Dogs can’t read. But the challenges to clear communication I describe above are equally present in training a dog as in writing a paper. Let’s get back to that frustrated trainer. How could the dog possibly not understand the objective that is so clear in the trainer’s mind? I see dogs confused and the handlers repeating the commands and corrections over and over and louder and louder, like the classic depiction of the tourist speaking English louder and louder to someone in a foreign country, as if simply emphasizing the unclear and unchanging message will miraculously make it understandable. And like the tourist, the trainer is unable to comprehend that they themselves are the ones responsible for communicating in such a way as can be understood, the other party is neither stupid nor stubborn.

In communicating with a dog our best tools are consistent requirements and consistent feedback. The dogs are learning from the patterns we create. If you enforce the dog’s stop every time you ask for a stop then very quickly the dog will begin stopping. Yes, there are some tough dogs that are relentless in challenging the stop. With these dogs you can’t let a single stop command go unenforced. With dogs that naturally pace themselves and stop easily you can let it slide, but that’s not easy on the dog. Lack of enforcement is lack of consistency, which disrupts the pattern and makes the requirements less clear. Some are worried that a soft dog will have trouble with consistent enforcement when in fact quite the opposite is true. If your dog is soft you need to be particularly attentive to consistent enforcement. The dog will quickly figure out what the requirement is and how to be correct.

When I say consistent enforcement here, I’m not talking harsh enforcement. For many dogs just taking a step towards them is sufficient for the stop. Most folks I see who can’t stop their dogs only enforce the stop occasionally. I always cringe inside when I watch someone make a dramatic correction, driving the dog back up the field, after I’ve watched them let at least a dozen stop commands go completely unenforced before this display of dominance. How is the dog to figure out when you are going to lose your temper? If you give a dog a command and don’t enforce that command then what does that command really mean to the dog? They don’t speak English. If I were to occasionally say “purple” to my dog, sometimes following up by yelling “PURPLE”, and every now and then run up to the dog and chase it up the field yelling “PURPLE”, a spectator would have trouble figuring out what I meant by “purple”. If I were to say “purple” to my dog and block the dog until it stopped, then every time I said “purple” I did the same thing, both dog and spectator would quickly become clear on the meaning of “purple” in this context.

Years ago I took a chicken training seminar with Bob and Marian Bailey. Chickens are quite easy to train, and completely unforgiving of poor training technique. It is all about timing and consistency with a chicken. Bob and Marian spent their lives training animals professionally, working with many other trainers over the decades. I recall them saying that the worst trainers were often those who worked with dolphins or monkeys, as their subjects were smart enough to figure out the requirements despite poor training technique. I feel the same way about training Border Collies to work stock. Walk to sheep with a decent Border Collie and you are half way to the finished product. These dogs are intelligent, determined, hardworking, and come to the field with an innate knowledge of how to manage stock. The trainer needs to setup the situation to encourage the instinct to develop properly, and put commands on the work. So often the dogs cover for our poor training that perhaps we just assume that we are communicating well.

Some rules of thumb I try to keep in the front of my thoughts while training:
1. Corrections must be consistently applied. Let the dog know when it is not complying with a command immediately and consistently. There is seldom need to be harsh if you are consistent.
2. Yelling at the dog is nowhere near as effective or informative as using your body to block the dog and force the behavior you are looking for. Walk, don’t yell. It’s cheaper than a gym membership.
3. Let the dog know when it is right, immediately. This helps the dog to learn the precise behavior you are looking for. Saying “good dog” 5 minutes later after you have ended the session is nice, but not helpful in communicating the job to the dog. When the dog complies take off the pressure immediately. Let the dog have the stock. Make your voice soft and appreciative on your next command.

Pay attention to your own training, not just the dog’s behavior. Pay attention to how you handle the situation at all times. Notice if you are letting commands slip by with only partial compliance. Notice your own body language, tone of voice and words used to work with the dog. Think hard about whether you have been clear from the dog’s point of view, remembering that they are counting on you to teach them your language. Give the gift of clarity and you will receive the gift of partnership.