AAUGH! Frustration

Frustration is a powerful emotion. Tolerance of lack of success is a skill that must be built and practiced on both ends of the leash.

Again, I generally find that dogs pick up this skill more quickly, given their adeptness with probability. They are more inclined to take a failure in stride, because a single trial does not significantly effect their overall picture.

"Out of the 100 times I sat, 64 of them resulted in something good. In my mind, there is a 64% chance of something good from sitting." Whether the actual number is 63 or 65, the overall probability of something good happening from sitting is high enough for the dog to continue to believe that "Sitting works!", even though it actually doesn't work 35-37% of the time.

ALL teachers -- owners, trainers, competitors -- experience some degree of failure. At some point, your student (dog) is not going to give you the response that is your goal. The student does not conjugate the French verb "aller". The dog doesn't sit. The client does not use a release word. The dog looks away from your eyes during a heeling exercise.

This single mistake is disheartening. There is something so human about a single failure making us into Charlie Brown "AAUGH!" The emotion of AAUGH! is, I believe, contagious between humans and dogs. I don't know if we push them into frustration because of our frustration or if they are so sympathetic as to just feel what we do, but I know that once I see frustration on either end of the leash, learning is about to stop.

Emotions and thinking do not coincide well. The brain does not multi-task. It can shift focus rapidly, but it does not multi-task. (Thanks, Dr. John Medina! All teachers should read "Brain Rules".) We exploit this to good effect when we ask frightened dogs to sit or give Hi-5 or heel. It is important to realize that this can work the other way as well.

Thinking can be interrupted by feeling equally well as feeling can be interrupted by thinking. You can stop your dog's lovely heel work with your few mis-timed reinforcers (punishments or rewards). Your mis-timing will frustrate the dog. "What the heck? NOW what are the rules?"

Since many dogs are good and kind, no one is chomped for this unfairness. But when I feel AAUGH!, if I had a mouthful of teeth and something squishy to chomp... well, I think it would take more than a few biscuits to stop me. Heaven help us if you decided to correct me for thinking about chomping! I'm not saying I excuse biting dogs, but I do understand them. (I am a shameless anthropomorphosizer. Or do I caninomorphi... ? well, whatever.)

Mistakes are part of the game. They are part of the experience. You will make them. The dog will make them. But human frustration -- that comes from lack of appropriate expectation of mistakes. Just as I would work with a frustrated dog, I recommend one of two approaches: learn to assess "Ok. Now why didn't that happen?" OR monitor building frustration and stop the session before it reaches critical mass. Use both.