Training Roller Coasters

Training Tuesday

I was working at the local amusement park this past weekend and was admiring their new roller coaster. The number of twists, turns, big drops, slow climbs, and upside down opportunities made my stomach do flip flops.

Ember leaned up against me as she sniffed the air. She was continuing to work as I stood there and thought about my training world and how it was perfectly represented by this roller coaster.

The highs are amazing. This is what I remember the most.

I often forget the times of hard work, the slugging up the hills trying to figure out how to train that new skill set.

Or how fast a training session can deteriorate and ends up in a hot mess in a valley....then slugging up the other side.

Then there is the thrill of seeing ALL the hard work come together in a seamless display of skill when your dog does exactly what it has been trained to do (or not to do).

We often forget about all of the maintenance that goes along with keeping a roller coaster up and going. The daily care and feeding of a complex piece of equipment to keep everything running. It takes teams of people to keep a roller coaster operating smoothly.

The maintenance and training of our canine partners is often left up to the person who is designated as their handler. Our K9 partners are complex pieces of detection equipment. Having a team/tribe to rely on is key to making sure you are keeping your training on track.

Find a supportive but honest training tribe. A group of people who you can make mistakes with and learn from them. The time to make mistakes is in training, not on a deployment.

Training another sentient being ,that does not speak the same language as you, to do a complex job for the equivalent of play with a $15 toy or treats is hard.

K9Sensus has a Facebook Group where you can join in some great conversations. We are a little more theory based, and I have

specifically cultivated it to be a safe, learning environment.