We had an excellent Utility training session this evening. Basil's doing very well on go-outs, signals and articles, and we've just begun glove training. When it gets a little warmer, we're going to get started on directed jumping. I just don't have the space to do this in the basement.
It's interesting how much I've learned since I trained Stuart, my first dog, through Utility. Stuart never qualified in Utility--he came very close once!--and really suffered because of my stupidity. I lumped criteria together into a hodgepodge of training stew, and behaviors fell apart repeatedly and with disastrous results. So now, I tend to be on the very cautious and slow side. I did a private lesson with an OTCH trainer earlier in the week and we talked about this; I drove 3 hours to work with her, because there's simply no one in my area who's "forward thinking" when it comes to competitive obedience (I've heard multiple times that my area is a backwater for training. We have one AKC obedience club in a metropolitan area of one million people, and they've been training the same way for 30 years. They're not about to change now).
Anyway, when I had my lesson with L, she gave me a lot of helpful advice. Basil and I were stuck on go-outs--we were up to about 25 feet from the wall, but I was unsure where to go next, or how to generalize him to new go-out locations since we've been using the same portion of basement wall for about two months now. L told me how to simply practice by taking my broad jump chute (which is used as a giant target of sorts to "show" the dog where to go) and moving it to different locations in the basement....over and over again (and eventually do this outside and at the club, whenever I'm there).
L uses mild corrections if the dog misses the go-out when cued, but since I wouldn't do that, she told me if he missed the go-out to take the dog by the collar and show him where to go. Basil has a habit of targeting the broad jump chute instead of the wall itself the very first time he's sent in a new location. He only does this the first time, when he's confused, even if I start him very close to the chute and the wall. I am adamant about not using corrections because that's a part of my dog training past I've left behind, but I don't mind taking him by the collar and leading him in to the wall, where he can then bop the wall and get praised (no c/t if I have to show him where to go). Although there are a lot of clickerites who believe that modeling a behavior is tantamount to abuse, I don't believe that. In fact, Basil has done much better since I've helped him by gently showing him where to go. Excellent!
So L noticed something interesting about my training style: that I tend to go too slow. I've been told this before, but since I train alone, I kind of forgot. I have a bad habit of splitting so much, and working so hard to make the dog successful, that he never gets a chance to make a mistake.
I've often thought this was a good goal in training, but I now I'm starting to think it frustrates my dog if he never gets the chance to be wrong or feel what it's like to make mistakes. If he's wrong, he doesn't get corrected, of course, he just misses an opportunity for reinforcement...but he also learns that not every single choice he makes is the right one (and not every single choice will always earn him a cookie!! ha ha). But mistakes are an important part of learning, I think, and trying to set the dog up to NEVER fail means he won't know how to make the right choice. Now, I'm not at all talking about the old-fashioned style of proofing, because I'd never set the dog up to fail on purpose. But the occasional mistake can be a good thing, because it gives both dog and trainer valuable information.
L told me to go ahead and push the envelope and see what happens with behaviors. If a behavior falls apart, then I know what we need to work on, and there's no harm in seeing what the dog can do. It was fun seeing Basil do great signals and go-outs yesterday at levels he hadn't yet done, simply because I'd been fence-sitting for far too long! And while I will never return to the old days of Lumpsville, I need to constantly remind myself to move a little faster when the dog's behavior shows me that he's ready and can handle it.
Who knows, maybe Basil really will be ready for our national specialty by the time October rolls around...
