Thinking & Feeling

These concepts are grossly misunderstood by the average person. Many people believe that only knowing what they did wrong is how they learned to do something. This is not true. They also think that any brain can learn anything, which is also, sadly, not true.

Teaching is a deliberate process of guiding learning. Teaching is NOT demonstration, although demo can help. Teaching is not telling, although telling can help. Good teaching is a deliberate process of selecting, designing, and presenting controlled experiences designed to facilitate learning.

Learning is a yes/no process of comparison. Does my letter "A" look like the teacher's? Yes or no. Does jumping up get me what I want? Yes or no.

Emotions are an inseparable part of the learning process. Repeated failure is disheartening, even frustrating. Success is joyful.

To complicate the picture, much of the work that is done with dogs is an attempt to address feelings directly. While operant conditioning is a wonderful way to teach behaviors, feelings are not teachable. Feelings are not learned or deliberate, but rather instantaneous chemical reactions. I cannot intentionally make myself genuinely sad without thinking of actual sad triggers. I cannot intentionally make myself genuinely frustrated without thinking of a frustrating stimulus. Feelings are not behaviors, although feelings can be inferred from the appearance of behaviors.

Because feelings are so often what dog owners wish to address, one way to address them is to provide the joy of success.

Now, this is where we begin to walk a slippery slope. Obedience training, a purely intellectual pursuit, can offer the dog the opportunity to experience success, and the emotion of joy that results from this success. So, what does the human learn from this? "Oh, obedience training fixes problem behaviors." Well, it can help, but SIT, DOWN, HEEL, COME, etc. aren't really the reason the problem behaviors (displaying unwanted emotions) disappear.

Why do SOME kinds of obedience training fix problem behaviors, while others have no effect or even worsen? Successful training approaches allow the dog to experience what the DOG recognizes as success. Problems arise when, though the owner may feel successful, the DOG does not!

There is no magic in teaching obedience commands. From the dog's perspective, I'd say most behaviors are roughly equivalent when there are no social interactions apart from handler -- no other dogs or critters or people around. You could have a fair degree of success teaching your dog to turn off the light, sit up and beg, jump through hoops, or whatever your dog is physically capable of doing!

The magic is in success. "Nothing succeeds like success," the old adage goes.

Rewards -- food, play, attention, access to any desired activity -- are an easy way owners can unmistakably communicate a dog's success to the dog.