Removing Friction Without Lowering Criteria

Let's talk about the whole concept of adjusting criteria. You know, those pesky D's of dog

training. Yes, there are six of them. If we think about 'friction' as the circumstances around the dog making the 'right' decision, then our job as trainers is to reduce the amount of friction the dog has for making the 'right' decision or offering the correct behavior.

It does not mean making the work easier by dropping all criteria.

It means becoming more strategic and more precise about the criteria you are actively training to.

Good training isn’t friction-free. Being deliberate about the friction the dog faces is good training.

There’s a difference between unnecessary friction and productive friction, and that distinction matters. When criteria get blurry or you make it easier, you’re not removing friction. You’re just feeding the animal. The dog isn’t learning something new; they’re learning how to get paid at a lower criteria than they are capable of.

Flash is a great reminder of this! Right now, I’m deliberately lowering her odor threshold. That doesn’t mean I’ve lowered expectations. It means I’ve gotten very clear about what the current criteria actually is. She has significant experience with stronger, farther-traveling odor that she’ll happily keep searching for. That history adds friction when thresholds drop. If I stack environmental complexity, like cold temperatures, and low-threshold aids all at once, I’m not building skill. I’m creating noise in our training.

So I remove the wrong friction.

I manage environmental conditions so they don’t obscure the lesson. I place my hides so they behave consistently(I TRY too). The picture stays sharp: searching more methodically leads to odor, odor leads to reinforcement.

This is where it becomes easy to step in and 'help', talk to the dog, or set up a training that feels comfortable.

Removing friction means stripping away what doesn’t serve the learning objective, not lowering the bar. The dog should still have to meet the criteria. They just shouldn’t have to fight confusion.

When your training is clear, the right choice becomes the easy choice.