Berners with The Edge, Week Six

I have been impressed by many things but two things that members of the Edge community seem to be embracing with gusto is recognition of the need to micro training, both in terms of Least Trainable Units but also session lengths, and the emphasis on Attitude.

In the video this week I start to discuss when and how to put micro-steps together, and use the example of Claire’s recall. I train the “wait” and the “come” separately (of course!) and apparently so well that when I put Claire on a wait and called her (“come”), she was uncertain how to respond.

File photo from 2019 Specialty where she knew how to “come” from wait — apparently, I have REALLY trained “wait” since then.

LOVE IT!

We should expect transition bumps when we chain Least Trainable Units together. Not a Big Deal.

In this week’s video (click HERE) I also try to navigate a continuation of our discussion about Ring Nerves. Specifically, I address how to handle our perception that people are mean and unkind and insulting at Dog Events because believing that adds to distress, which doesn’t help anyone.

This is a challenging topic because perception is reality — even when it isn’t.

Does that make sense?!

We react emotionally as if what we perceive with our mind (cognition) is 100% accurate and true, but we know from all kinds of research that humans are actually pretty terrible at the accurate interpretation of others.

Seriously! For a great read about this: Talking to Strangers by Gladwell — it will blow your mind. (FYI — get the audio book as it is read by the author more like a podcast).

What that has to mean to all of us is this: Our perception about the intentions/meaning of what others say and do is likely wrong — or at the very least, not completely accurate.

Oh Dear.

Please consider that when we assign the worst possible motive to what others do/say — instead of remembering we are all imperfect communicators and that humans regularly misread others — we poke at our emotional bruises. We believe bad things and so we feel bad things, even when our beliefs are wrong.

OUCH.

And I am struck by something I believe is important: when we are convinced that our assumptions about the meanness of others is 100% accurate we may well become part of the problem!

YIKES.

Describing someone or a group of participants in unflattering terms based on our highly suspect perceptions and interpretation of meaning contributes to the exact climate we are criticizing.

Dang it.

Life, with Dogs — always so educational and ready to reflect things we may not enjoy seeing. At least, that is how I feel about all this: a bit chagrined and committed to being and doing better - how about you?

Take Home Food for Thought: You might be wrong. And what would THAT mean?

Berners with The Edge, Week Four

The kinds of things that we have focused on in the beginning weeks of our online community adventure are understanding the value of thinking micro, the value of reinforcement, and we have also offered specific ideas for training.

I started the first week with a video about Vulnerability because learning requires an ability to embrace and expose our imperfections; that is not easy, and especially for adults. Thank you to those who have shared videos — they are valuable learning opportunities for all, and your willingness to be vulnerable is honored and appreciated.

This is the week in which I want us begin to more explicitly consider the parallel tracks of training dogs and the whole human side of things. Yep—we are going to start tackling the monster that is Ring Nerves.

The name is misleading even as it gives us a shared concept to discuss. It isn’t really nerves nor is it limited to a ring — rather, it is a physiological response to a perceived or real threat that happens to so many at dog events.

Why do people experience this response at dog events? Are dog events dangerous?

Note that the threat can be real or perceived. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if a dog event is actually dangerous or not. If a person perceives a threat, the response is activated and it is real (and unpleasant).

But that response does more than make humans sweat, tremble, and need to run to the facilities — our fight-flight-freeze response distracts dogs.

Keenly attuned to us because of eons spent evolving the hard-wiring to be that way, our stress response triggers dogs to be on high alert for the threat. I bet you can imagine that when sirens are screaming about impending attack, it is hard to focus on anything else — like heeling.

Dogs do not understand the concept of perceived threat and we cannot simply explain, “Never mind that I am a Hot Mess of Screaming Stress Hormones right now. There is not actually not a lion, tiger, or bear — I just perceive a threat to my self-image.”

And so the dog is on alert for the danger, scanning the environment to be ready for the imminent attack and preparing to get the heck out of Dodge — and the human cannot understand why the dog is not happily engaged in the ring.

I left my camera in Boise — sigh. Therefore, I am photo-deficient these days.

This week’s video invites consideration about both the impact of perceived threats at dog events AND how to figure out what those perceived threats are; they are not the same for everyone. If we understand the perceived threat(s), we can change things — I promise.

In addition, I pose what I think is an important question — what are we practicing when we continue to show a dog whose ring performance is disengaged and/or not what we want to see?

This is an honest question and not asked with judgment — I really want to know what drives people to continue to show a dog who does not seem ready to achieve the human’s hopes and dreams. If we understand what drives such decisions, maybe we can be helpful.