Monday Round-Up & Confirmation Bias: An Example

Let’s start with some wonderful news.

I tuned in to the live stream of a big show back east and who do I see but Lori and Ruthie (Sparkler)! I watched while Ruthie was placed third in a lovely and big class of Open Bitches — well-handled by Lori. How awesome is that?! Congratulations Team Ruthie.

Littermate Kiri also had a good weekend at one of the same giant shows. In spite of being the only of the many lovely Special bitches sporting her summer coat, Kiri received an Award of Merit from Breeder-Judge Libby K. VERY cool. Kiri is, of course, owner-handled — and very well, I might add. Love the live streaming!

Congratulations are also due to Marti and her girl, Lili — Lili (an adopted member of the Kaibab family ;) completed the requirements for the BMDCA Versatility Excellent award! WOO HOO and big congratulations to Team Lili.

Okay —now onto Confirmation Bias: An Example.

I was giddy with excitement — the countertops were arriving!!!

They wheeled in the first slab.

“Is this the color you ordered?” he asked with a smile, clearly joking.

“No, actually it isn’t,” I said.

Awkward and incredulous silence ensued.

We both got on our phones — him to the Countertop Mothership and me to the Kitchen Designer.

In the end, the guys offered to just install the wrong ones so we have countertops until the new ones arrive, and told us how much they appreciated we were nice people and were not irate.

Check out the current mortuary-themed kitchen — or maybe Halloween?

I sigh a lot.

Sigh.

An important and related aside: It is okay if we say “at least…” to ourselves but never to others.

At least I have countertops now!

You may recall the giant tree episode — the one that missing falling on me and two dogs by a matter of minutes?

Apparently I have offended the Wood gods.

I was driving home from tracking yesterday and chatting on speaker with my Perfect Sister when suddenly there was a giant BOOM and the window right behind me exploded.

With Claire in the crate. Luckily, I had the mesh screen up and that prevented the glass from showering her.

It did not seem likely that someone shot my window with a cannon but it sure sounded that way.

I called 911 and a nice deputy showed up. He went up the road to investigate and at the point there was glass, he also found this…

It even had incriminating glass that matched my window embedded in it! Clearly the culprit.

Okay, how shall I interpret these three unfortunate experiences?

The experiences and events we have as we walk through the world are pressed through our mental filters and those things are either grabbed as evidence or discarded as irrelevant based on what we already tend to believe — about ourselves, about others, about the Universe, about God.

THAT is Confirmation Bias.

We can understand our Confirmation Bias(es) by paying attention to what emerges after an event/experience goes through those mental filters.

For example, I tend to quickly and easily see the benefits and positives when things do not go according to plan.

My windshield needed replacing anyway — this shattered window will get me to finally take care of it.

At least I have countertops now — the end is in sight!

What a blessing I was running late and not crushed by the tree.

My Mental Channels tend towards the Optimism Channel and Good Intentions Channel — not the “Poor Me” or “Life Sucks” Channels.

How and why can I do that after almost being crushed by a tree, having a piece of wood miss my driver’s side window by inches, and having yet another kitchen mess up/delay?

Because Mental Channels are a choice and in my mind, I control the remote.

Berners with The Edge, Special Edition

I asked members of our online community to ponder the reasons one might show a dog who is not prepared or engaged. I realized through my own reflections that these are two questions. After all, a dog who is unprepared for the ring work may or may not also be a dog who is disengaged in said ring.

Sparkle’s early Novice B runs, for example, involved happily leaping up on me instead of fronting on the recall, and who could forget how she created confetti out of my armband on the stay at the 2017 Specialty?! Not quite ready to qualify — but she sure did have a great time in the ring and she was certainly engaged.

Not prepared doesn’t have to mean not engaged, and there is an important difference when we consider how to proceed.

I like to check my implicit biases to hopefully minimize the impact they have on others (and myself). Maybe there are reasons to show a disengaged dog that I am missing? I find the best way to explore bias and test out our thinking is in conversation with others.

I decided, therefore, to reach out to Alison Jaskiewicz, a wonderful trainer/handler of multiple OTCH and High in Trial Berners and an AKC Obedience Judge. I asked her specific questions to get her thoughts about showing an unprepared and/or a disengaged dog; in the interest of transparency, here is what I wrote to her:

My perception is that taking an "unprepared" dog in a ring is fine IF said dog is happy and engaged -- and handler expectations are reasonable. I guess what I mean is this -- unprepared in terms of precise skills probably won't ruin things. 

But unprepared in terms of the dog is not engaged and not having fun is a whole different thing -- I see zero value in taking that kind of unprepared into a ring.

Maybe I am missing something? Maybe my own biases are showing? Hence my question(s) to you, if you have time to answer:

When, if ever, is there value in taking a disengaged dog into an obedience ring at an actual show? In your experience, does doing that impact future performance -- positively or negatively? And if one finds one's self in the ring with a disengaged dog, what might one do?

Alison’s response, shared with permission, is as follows:

I would always prefer to NQ with a happy dog than Q with an unhappy one. After all, this is my friend and buddy by my side. I was the one who chose to enter a trial and if my dog is unhappy I am responsible.

I agree that showing a dog who is not engaged in the game makes no sense at all, particularly if the handler has longer term aspirations.  Everything a dog does in an obedience ring is a learning experience.

Occasionally a dog will disengage at an event or even in the ring and we have choices to make. We can subtly alter our handling and our own energy, we can engage more between exercises, we can opt to politely leave the ring. Those are learning experiences to be considered and thoroughly evaluated. If repeated often [showing a disengaged dog], I think the showing relationship will likely suffer.

As to any 'value' of taking a disengaged dog into the obedience ring - I suppose each of us gets to decide what we 'value' at any given time. Some people will choose to 'value' a quick and dirty CD [Editor’s Note: Also called the Git ‘er Done CD and yes, I have done couple of those 🤷🏼‍♀️😂]. 

I think you and I both believe that any showing should be an extension of a loving relationship with our dogs in everyday life and do our best to help people find the magic of a happy working connection with our dogs. We are seeking TEAM in an engaging, positive, loving way.”

Alison and Tristan on the occasion of one of their all-breed High in Trials. Tristan was the 2019 BMDCA National Specialty High in Trial dog, and is the BMDCA’s 2019 Top Novice B Obedience Dog and Top Open B Obedience Dog.

And so there you go, my Friend — additional Food for Thought.

Thanks to Alison for taking the time to answer — she also offered some great ideas for the Ring Nerves conversation that I will share this weekend.

As I see it, we seem to be circling back to Goals but with a new twist/question: Are your current choices supporting or hindering your Aspirational Goal(s)?

The question may be mine but the answers are all yours.

A is for Attitude

Yesterday I posed these two questions about matches and run thru’s to The Edge group:

• What are your goals when doing matches and/or more formal run thru's?

• How do they support your training?

I appreciate the diversity of responses received; sharing our thoughts gets them out of our head, and invites others to help us refine and shape them.

Some of you may remember last Specialty when I was trying to decide whether to show Claire in Novice B obedience — this was happening literally at ringside. She was entered but not ready to show, in my opinion. I was teaching her a “finish” as we waited through the long class, for heaven’s sake.

I know how to have fun with my dog in a ring and do not suffer from Ring Nerves. Therefore, I decided — what the heck?! I would have fun and make it a great experience for her. Basically, I decided to treat it like a match or a run thru.

My version having fun with an unprepared dog was this: Claire was second in a class of something like 50 dogs, behind her Uncle Tristan who went High in Trial. She lost two points for her no-sit finish and still scored a 196.

And most important— we had a blast.

Had I seen one iota of stress in my dog, I would have excused us immediately — rehearsing undesired attitude in any kind of a ring is a Bad Idea.

If a dog is stressed in a match, she has practiced being stressed.

If a dog is worried in a run thru, he has rehearsed being worried.

Attitude is the foundation of focus — if you lose the confident attitude of a dog, you can kiss focus good-bye.

Therefore, attitude — not stress or worry or even actual skills — is what most needs to be practiced in matches and run thru’s.

“Working through” the concerns or worries is actually not what we want — it still brings the worries and concerns into the ring, and risks teaching the dog Learned Helplessness, which is a real buzzkill.

Most people can teach the dog skills — that is the easy part. The hard part, evidenced by the number of dogs being shown that look like they would rather be anywhere but a ring, is teaching and maintaining attitude.

Don’t risk poisoning the well. Once poisoned, it is tough to get right again (but it is possible!).

We all have different goals for our dogs. I would hope, however, that we share a commitment to ensuring our dogs have what they need to be happy and successful in whatever we ask of them.

And that, my Friends, means training skills and attitude to fluency before stepping in a ring setting — and then only doing what the dog can and will do in that ring while maintaining attitude.

For some dogs, that could mean a match in which we do two steps of heeling and then a toy is tossed before we happily leave the ring.

For Claire last year — it was the entire Novice ring exercises.

I have not shown Claire in obedience since the 2019 Specialty. When she enters the obedience ring again this Spring, my primary objective will not be about scores or ribbons or even what anyone else thinks about our performance. Rather, I will consider the runs successful if my dog maintains her pizzazz and attitude because that is, after all, the most challenging of training skills.

Game On.