Embrace those mistakes

I'm watching Belle (5.5 months) put pieces of the detection game together. We are working through adding in her start cue, a small search, then her final response on the end. No, she is not on her target odor. We are using a 'throw away cue' to teach the chain. This is one of the reasons I use the Novel Odor Training Aid. (NOTA). Because there is a saying, "name it when you love it". I can name the chain with target odor later.

Why? Because there are lots of mistakes. There are butterflies to chase, people to meet, and things to climb. The world if full of distractions that should be in the background. She's a five month old puppy. It is important to me that I also give her time to be a puppy.

Do I reinforce all of her mistakes?

No. I have to balance behavior not at criteria, effort for doing the work, and fun. And part of generalizing a behavior and having a progression plan is that I can start at a known place in my plan and spin her up through it quickly in a new area if needed. I always know where to go back too.

Therefore, those mistakes are opportunities for me to find out what holes are in my training in new locations. I can build her understanding of the stimuli (odor) and the job in a systematic manner in new locations without dropping my criteria significantly(generalization). The goal is to get her the place in the plan she is at in my training building, and out in the world as fast as possible.

I am okay with her making mistakes. This is part of the learning process. No, I do not always make it easier. There are some days where I pack it up and we do something else. One of the things I really need her to learn is that I CAN NOT solve all the problems for her. If I continue to walk her into odor, or cue up her TFR, we are going to hit a bigger challenge later on in our work. She will learn to look to me for help. This is one of the last things I want to teach her.

Those mistakes are important for her to learn resiliency.

Those mistakes are important for me to learn holes in my training so I can slice behaviors thinner in later training.

_____

2026 will have some new courses coming online!