Blowing Up the Messenger

It happens every semester - you would think I would be used to it by now.

Students irate when I do my job. Specifically, when I inform them via a grade and comments that their assignment wasn’t actually amazing.

“I always get A’s on my papers.” “Your instructions were not good.” “I am an A student.” “My other professors give me A’s on my papers.” Repeat.

It is hard to hear Unflattering Truth.

I so get it. Truly I do.

If “I am a 4.0 student” understands unflattering feedback as truth, how can he maintain his personal narrative — his very identity — about himself as a student?

He can’t.

And that leaves two options:

1. It is the professor’s fault (WTH does she know?!); OR,

2. I have things to learn.

One might say that presence at a university assumes one knows there are things to learn, but apparently not.

Therefore, Option #1 is the logical choice (!).

Huh.

Humans are so interesting.

And now, Dear Reader, please make a slight substitution — after all, this is a blog about Life — with Dogs.

When a dog does not provide the feedback that we are an amazingly awesome trainer/handler/person/everything by turning in an A+ performance, we have two options:

1. It is the dog’s fault; OR,

2. I have things to learn.

Yep.

The dog’s performance is your grade as a trainer/handler.

Blame the dog and you never get better.

(Important and Relevant Note: Consider bad grades and other human misadventures as evidence that you have not yet died and therefore are still an imperfect human being living on earth with similarly imperfect human beings [and really amazing dogs]. Given that it was just the 36th Anniversary of my mom’s untimely death at age 45 — allow me to say this about that: Lucky Imperfect You!).

There are, of course, other ways to get a desired grade.

A few years back one student decided the way to get a good grade was to buy a paper from an internet site and submit it as her own — in my ETHICS CLASS.

That did not go well.

Sometimes cheating does result in a good grade on an assignment or canine performance. But then you have to live with the knowledge that you are a fraud, an imposter — and basically just a lousy human being.

But change is possible!

Don’t despair!

You — the collective you including me — CAN be a real A+ student or trainer or human (or preferably — all of those).

How?

Just take the C- this time and embrace Option #2.

You will be transformed.

I promise.

In Which Training Involves a Moose

This is what it looks like to train a drop on recall.

Yes, she is a baby unicorn.

The drop on recall requires the dog to sit in heel position, wait while the handler walks to the other side of the ring, come promptly when called, drop into a down position on a single cue (while in motion) — and hold that position until called again. The dog completes the exercise by sitting squarely in front of the handler, and then — on cue — returns to heel position.

WHEW.

That is a lot, and especially when you add all the finer points — for example, wanting a fast recall and a quick drop and perfect fronts and finishes.

I train in small pieces that I call Least Trainable Units — that basically means Baby Steps.

In the photo above, Claire was playing fetch with that stuffed moose and I randomly gave the signal to drop when she was racing back to me.

Claire dropped quickly. I praised while she waited and — after snapping the photo — walked over to her, took the moose, handed over a cookie and threw the moose again — much to her great delight.

What would I do if Claire did not drop?

This is important.

I would have taken the moose with a happy “thank you” (my cue for the release) and had Claire do something she knows well — a finish or a sit — and I would have rewarded that by throwing the moose.

AND I would have said to myself, “Self — you need to do something different to better support her understanding.”

Something different could be adding both a signal and a verbal, stepping forward as I cue her, only asking for the down when she was stationary or moving more slowly, or, or, or — so many possibilities.

Dog training is a creative endeavor — or should be.

Not on my menu of possibilities is any kind of consequence or verbal error message because seriously, the dog is racing back to me holding a moose — what part of all that would she understand as the error?

How does it help anything to tell a dog who doesn’t fully understand and is doing at least three things at once that she is wrong?! Training should not be a guessing game for the dog with seemingly random error messages tossed in — that is just mean (and unproductive).

If Claire had not dropped as requested, the issue is not the dog — it is that I did not prepare her well enough to meet the expectation. The one who needs to correct is the human. Luckily, I can do that.

And that is why Claire has a lovely and fast drop on recall, with lots of attitude and no stress or worry. Because I assume good intentions of my dog, and know any corrections belong on me.

While not the most flattering look at her face because she was turning, I love this photo because you can see how Claire, at almost three, is filling out and growing up.

Claire: “You threw the ball through the fence AGAIN.”

I hope you have a Happy Sunday, one in which people assume your own good intentions!

P.S. The Monday Round-up will be a good one.

Free to Good Home

If you are a regular blog follower you know that I spent some months last winter and spring training with Suzanne and Sundance; that ended with a Tracking Dog title for Sundance.

In the summer I was asked to help a person with draft training — but she is 500 miles away. We used technology to facilitate our work together, and that team is having fantastic success.

I do not, of course, take credit — it is the teams that did the work and earned the titles.

But it is great fun to have a part, however small, in supporting the adventures of dog/person teams. Even more, it is an honor to be invited on the journey (as a sort of annoying back seat driver).

Training dogs is actually the much smaller part of working with teams — the expertise required to effectively support dog/human teams includes more about working with humans than I could list here (and keep your interest).

I literally teach that stuff to graduate students.

Educating humans how to work effectively with other humans is my professional thing — I have tenure at a university and a professional mental health license to prove it.

And training dogs — my passion for over two decades.

How grateful I am to Suzanne and Crystal for reminding me how enjoyable it is to companion teams as they set and achieve goals.

I want to do more of it.

And so I will.

Starting in January.

Dog training that is focused on the human side of the team — in kind, respectful, supportive, and informed ways.

Online.

Small groups.

Four months (think 2020 Specialty).

And because giving back and creating community matter to me…

Seriously. Free.

Additional details in late November — but you may request that the additional information be emailed to you when it is available (sontag.bowman@gmail.com).

Notes: Limited to Berner Peeps for now.

P.S. And speaking of building community — Secret Santa coming soon (not limited to Berner Peeps!).