Audio Article
As a softball coach, the mantra was, trust the process and the outcome will take care of itself. When coaching athletes, we know that with knowledge of skill mechanics, along with video analysis we can almost guarantee success for the players as long as we have a plan for the skill acquisition. In coaching a puppy or dog, we still need to trust the process. It may be different as far as the pathway but the concept is the same.
When working with a dog trainer, the trainer will provide guidelines to use that will help to achieve the desired skills that we want for our dog. There may be a sequence to follow and different milestones to achieve as goals are reached, but we need to work on the process. That means practicing with our dog as suggested, depending on the complexity of the behavior, and the directions provided.
If we are just working on getting past squirrels on our walk, then it’s simple. Allow our dog to see what she is reacting to and give her treats as we move past, so that she gets a positive association with the distraction. This is conditioning her brain to feel good about passing the object and eventually it will become irrelevant to our dog, which is what we want. If we continue to do this every time we pass a squirrel, our dog will eventually be able to simply carry on as if there was nothing there.
A difficult skill might involve meeting other dogs. This requires a plan and breaking it down into steps based on their ability to control their emotions. Daily training on arousal helps to teach our dogs how to control them. These training sessions and their experience and ability to control their arousal, will help when we come across other dogs. For example, making the dog wait for breakfast and playing a wait and take game with treats.
A more complex or difficult skill where we need to trust the process might be going to meet one of their puppy or dog friends. This requires a plan for the event and to break it down into steps depending on their ability to control their arousal. By working every day on arousal using different activities we are going through the process of teaching her how to control it. Even though we are not with another dog at the time of training, the training sequences will help for when we are with a dog.
For example, an arousal control activity that we do every morning is we have our dog wait for her breakfast until she is given permission to eat it, and then I play a wait and take game with her after that for treats. She is waiting for her food or treat even though it is the only thing that she wants to do at the time.
We also work on her arousal in different activities where she learns to control her emotions. By going through the processes and sticking with coaching her, there’s a good chance she will be able to control it in other situations. We can also know that when she is an adult in another year, she is going to be everything we all want her to be.
We need to trust the process, and that if we keep working and coaching our dogs with the skills that they need, they will eventually be a common and natural occurrence. During this process, we need to remember to enjoy our dog. We need to enjoy the process as much as we trust it. Our dogs are doing the best that they can and mostly just want to do the right thing. It would be easy to focus so much on the training and raising her that we forget to have fun and allow our dog to have fun too.
In closing, remember to enjoy your journey with your dog, at the end of the day, that’s what we all want.
