Thoughtful Thursday: Being flexible but principled

Flash and I stood at the line. I waited for her to settle in. We had just finished a rousing game of fetch for a wonderful whistle sit in the middle of a send out. I am waiting for her to lock onto a designated direction with no visible target for our next send out. This is our next step in the plan. But she's not settling in. She's looking around, to excited.

So I wait. We have time.

I could switch to the next one in our series which is a visible target at a distance, but that is not what I want her to learn. We are working on no visible target, calmly running out. listening for directions....keep running until you see something to retrieve. So we wait. In about 10 to 15 seconds, I feel the wave concentration come over her. I give her the cue and we complete the desired goal, at criteria. She comes back and I do not require the full deliver to hand sequence.

Yet. I'm flexible. I can let this criteria slide for the moment.

Putting advanced behavior chains together often requires us to balance competing criteria. This requires knowing when, where, and how much to reinforce along the chain. I see this a lot in area search handlers with a find/refind (dog finds the subject, returns to handler, completes a behavior, is given a cue and leads handler to subject). Maintaining this as a strong chain can be difficult.

Complex chains require you to balance competing criteria. Flash told me recently that I spent too much time reinforcing getting to the end of the send out. She stopped listening for directions.

As a trainer, you should be tracking where you are reinforcing along the chain to balance which link you are reinforcing. One weak link and you have a weak chain. Your partner speaks to you through their behavior, not what they think, know, or feel. Unfortunately we aren't lucky enough to be able to read their minds. We only can track what they do. By tracking what they do, we know where we need to reinforce the chain. We then know where to give it strength.

Training requires us to be adaptable, yet principled, and to understand the principals of behavior.