Mistakes Happen!

Mistakes are an unavoidable part of learning. Are they an essential component of learning? No, not really. There's some new human cognition research supports this idea, and I'd expect a parallel concept to apply to canine cognition.

In theory, perfectly designed learning experiences would prevent all mistakes. In practice, the mistakes help us design more and more perfect learning experiences. The mistakes help us see where the gaps in learning truly are.

For example, a dog trainer's client repeatedly uses the word "No" where a command cue, not a feedback cue, is appropriate. The trainer realizes: "Hey, we need to discuss a LEAVE IT command."

Ideally, the trainer would have been able to download this idea to the client's brain during the first few moments of interaction. Practically, the client had so many other, more pressing issues to process, that introducing this concept first would likely have resulted in the same lack of learning.

Another example is a dog's idea of a SIT. A dog who has difficulty sitting in the proper HEEL position (aligned with & adjacent to the handler's feet, not angled toward or away from handler, not ahead or behind handler, not too close to handler or too far away) may have an idea that SIT is something you only do when someone is standing or when someone is in front of you or when someone is close to you.

SIT should be simply a rump-lowering manueuver, regardless of where you are, where your handler is, or what your handler is doing -- at least, if it is going to be used as an instructional prompt in the HEEL exercise! (If you teach SITs only in the space in front of your feet, SIT really becomes a recall cue because it means "plop yourself in front of my feet". Do as you wish with this knowledge.)

The idea is easy to recognize when mistakes fall into the above kinds of less emotionally-charged categories. But when mistakes include pulse-raisers like cringing, shivering, staring, teeth-baring, hackles-raising, growling, tail-thrashing, lunging, ... It's difficult to keep the perspective that these are simply indicators of where learning needs to occur!

I am not attempting to minimize the seriousness of any of these behaviors. These are indeed very, extremely serious behaviors, and addressing them should only occur under supervision of a qualified professional. I am also not suggesting that all of these behaviors can be sufficiently addressed to make a dog a safe pet! Some dogs have simply been the unfortunate recipients of a imperfect storm of genetics, upbringing, and/or management. Not every dog should be considered "just in need of some training". Some would be better off in a sanctuary, and, if one is not available, in the interest of best addressing needs that cannot be met -- well, the Best Day Ever should end with a trip across the Rainbow Bridge.

A solid learning experience is designed to elicit significantly more successes than errors, but also anticipates the occurrence of errors. How do we handle them? How can we minimize their impact? Do we ignore them? Do we (humanely) punish them? If so, how? What does a specific mistake indicate that we need to re-teach? At what point do we go back to the drawing board? These are issues you should discuss with your trainer.

Because errors can come from both ends of the leash, many owners feel that they are to blame for every mistake their dog makes. This is blatantly untrue. Every dog is different, and what one dog chose to do in a given context is not necessarily what another one would have. Owners & dogs who are shy, anxious, damaged, even neurotic do seem to find each other, but this is not to say that one causes all the behaviors of the other!

Sometimes, though, it is the human's error. Apart from immediate, "in the moment" errors, like missing a click or feedback marker or release word, which are recognized by most humans immediately, errors in judgment are often more typical of the kind of mistakes humans make.

Instead of keeping my dog on leash at twilight on a cool, damp August evening while walking through a cornfield frequented by deer, like any sensible dog owner would -- I didn't. I'm a dog trainer, after all! After some mind-bogglingly awesome responses to sit and down commands (from motion, no less), I released her from a SIT, looked to see what had caught her attention, and watched the blur of fur that was her get smaller and smaller as two deer lead her through the field. Yes, I got her back & no one died (my sole criteria for "a good off-leash experience"), but to call the event a high-value reward for release from the sit? Well, as much as I'd like to, even I can't quite convince myself that the judgment call was a good one!

Instead of training their dogs during puppyhood, a charming couple decided to simply give the dogs whatever the dogs "needed", which the dogs would communicate to them. Dogs don't lie, after all. Apparently, what the dogs "needed" was to fight with each other, occasionally biting their owners in the process. Since the owners had done no training to establish any kind of communication skills, nor were there any learned behaviors on cue, the kind of interventions that could have addressed the friction before it erupted were impossible. Fortunately, these owners realized in fairly short order the error of their ways and contacted a qualified, experienced professional.

Mistakes are definitely undesirable & unpleasant, and consequences are something all teachers wish they could shield their students from, but they will happen. They say that good decisions come from experience -- and experience comes from bad decisions!