When I was writing the long post yesterday, I wrote down something about role of my own emotions in the whole story. And than I started to think more about the topic, may own emotions and my training... There is lots of things here I would say.
When I went to training classes with Brix, they told me to act really angry when I'm punishing him, even If I don't feel like it, so he'll now he did something bad. They also told me to act very happy when he does something great, even if I had a crappie day. But, I'm not sure if it worked or not. Today for example I don't even try to work with my dogs if I feel crappie knowing I will get frustrated easily. Now, frustration wouldn't be that big of a problem if I didn't connect it with punishing my dog...Today I still have to use lots of self control to stop myself from jerking the leash, it just became a reflex back than and is really hard to get myself rid of it. So, I prefer training my dog without a leash.
But, back to emotions... People often talk that dog mood changes according to ours and I did notice things like that. But if we are just acting, aren't dogs able to see through our mask? If we drive our punishments with anger, won't they get very irrational and really abusive? I won't talk about whether to use P+ or not, it's not the point.Then again, people say clicker training is cold, puts a distance between you and your dog, you're whole communication is just one click. But when I compare myself now, being really and truly happy when I train my dog and before, angered and frustrated by the mistakes my dog made, I don't see the difference in quantity of emotions, just the quality.There is this trainer, back in the club I used to train in. She has a very happy and delightful personality, but she's also calm and in a great control of her actions and responses. And her dogs are just great, really love working with her. Is it just due to the way she works or dogs pick up that charisma.
Now, another point of view. I remember times when I was really frustrated or sad or depressed or something else after walks or training sessions due to numerous reasons, some of them being 'bad' behavior of my dogs or disapproval of people around me. I realized they were acting like a great P+ to me and I started disliking walking my dogs or training them. After some time, I even developed physical reactions (feeling sick) when I was going to my training club due to bad experiences there. Even when I'm just driving somewhere at nigh listening to same music as I did then I still have the same reaction although I'm going somewhere else. And now, I realize it's a closed circle and it's hard to get out of it. Cause you feel crappie, your training session is bad, you feel even crappier next time. And for example, my dog acts aggressive in our walks, I walk her less and less and thus loose chances to work on her aggression so she's even more aggressive, I feel even more frustrated when she acts like that cause I feel so helpless. Man, more I work with dogs and think about it, I have a stronger feeling that dog training IS about people, not about dogs...
I know everything's really mixed up here, I'm just trying to keep track of my thoughts and development in thinking. It'll be fun to read this in few years.
