We regularly take “good enough” as the dog learns the job. What we accept today we may not accept next week. We take “good enough” when the dog has a bad day, or we’re having a bad training day, end the session rather than fight. We take “good enough” when we are asking the dog to apply what it has learned in a new situation. Again, giving the dog room to work it out based on its current skill set.
Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. We all have our preferences for work style in
a dog. Sometimes we get a dog that has a
different style, and risk degrading that dog if we cannot adapt ourselves to this
new dog’s methods. Sometimes we need to
step back and realize our demands are more directed at the innate style of the
dog than the quality of the work. We need to accept the different style as good enough. The
more dogs you have trained the easier it is to recognize the natural style of
the dog as it evolves, and adapt your criteria to that. Or, if the dog is truly unsuited, find
someone more comfortable with that type of dog.
When you are working on skills that do not come naturally to
a dog then there is not much room for “good enough”. You need to be entirely consistent in your criteria or the dog
will not figure out what the requirements are.
Examples are dogs that are difficult to stop, dogs that don’t turn off
the stock on their flanks, dogs that are overly flanky and substitute a flank
for a walkup. With each of these you
have criteria that you need to enforce virtually every single time. You will need more time on simple foundation exercises to be sure the dog understands the requirements. If you accept “good enough” because working
on these basic skills can get boring or you are not paying attention, then good
enough is what you are teaching your dog.
Currently I’m working a very direct young dog. Getting him to turn his gaze from the sheep
to flow by them on a flank is like getting a toddler to walk past a plate of
Oreo cookies. Every time we come out to
train it seems he has forgotten that “away” and “come by” mean turn your head
and release the sheep then flow along them.
Once he begins his flanks properly the shape and speed are quite good,
though he is prone to turning in early. He’s
a talented young dog, biddable and determined.
I am so very tempted to go forward and spend time on more advanced
exercises. But if I allow him to learn
that my flank commands mean anything less than to break his gaze and turn to
flow along the sheep then his weakness will become a long term liability. If I persist and teach him that those
commands have a clear and distinct meaning then we will have the tools to
succeed. Because he is not naturally
inclined to break his direct mode, he has needed quite a bit of work on those
flanks, often boring or frustrating. I’m
not expecting any miracle breakthroughs.
This will take work, and will take maintenance. His flanking exercises began when balancing
the sheep to me, then on the fetch when he is working further off, and again
for inside flanks. The correct flank has
needed to be taught in each scenario separately, particularly inside flanks. Certainly I’m enjoying some more advanced
work, lengthening his outrun, the occasional split, allowing him to drive for
longer stretches. In all of these I’m
careful to make sure any flanks are correct.
For if I accept “good enough” because I’m “impatient enough” then I’ve
taught him that “Come by” means move to the left and march on.
Pay attention to "good enough", your decisions on what less than ideal work you accept, and where you intervene.
Pay attention to "good enough", your decisions on what less than ideal work you accept, and where you intervene.
