Making Excuses

Posted on Wednesday May 9, 2007 5:13 PM

In the course of our training and teaching Ali and I hear a lot of
the same excuses and reasoning over and over. In fact, we ourselves,
in our own training occasionally fall victim to the same erroneous
reasoning. It is times like that when a knowledgeable coach or
training partner will smack you in the head and bring you back to
reality.
I was recently rereading some excellent work by Ken Ramirez.

Thinking for the Animal

I am constantly amazed at how often trainers will say, "The animal
knows what I want." Or, "I think the animal thought I was going to do
such so I..." Although we all make these comments, it is a major
mistake to use them in our training decisions. We cannot allow
ourselves to make decisions based on what we believe animal is
thinking. It will backfire on us 95% of the time. Training is
successful because we reinforce good behavior, as it occurs, not from
reinforcing good thoughts or intentions.

Making Excuses for the Animal

A similar situation occurs when we try to justify the animal's error
with a well-intentioned excuse. The following statements are all too
common among some trainers:

> "The animal's not feeling well, but he made a good effort."
> " I don't think my cue was clear, so I gave him the benefit of
the doubt."
> "The other animal got in the way, so I reinforced him -- It
wasn't his fault."

While these excuses may indeed be valid, they do not justify
reinforcing poor behavior. When we reinforce an incorrect response
based on such excuses we are anthropomorphizing. Reinforcement of
this sort mistakenly assumes that the animal will understand why you
reinforced its substandard behavior. So, when you later expect the
animal to perform up to par, the animal may become confused or
frustrated.

Sound familiar? We're not dealing with dolphins but all the same
principles apply. And I often hear, "He tried so hard but just
couldn't make the weave entry so I rewarded him anyway, I don't want
to destroy his drive," or he really tried to keep the bar up or he
really tried to hit that contact. HOGWASH!!! Don't reward poor
behavior. You don't need to punish it, but just don't reward it. I
see it all the time in shows where a dog knocks bars, misses contacts
and then the handler is screaming "good boy" and tugging on the leash
at the finish line. Very detrimental to your success. Don't fall
victim! If your dog needs cheerleading because of drive issues then
do the three or four obstacles that your dog CAN do properly, and then
praise wildly, leave the course, and tug till your arm falls off!
Hopefully you do this at the match level and work your way up to a
dog that can do a whole course properly prior to entering "real"
trials. Then if your dog gives you improper behavior, just be
neutral, DO NOT REWARD IT.

Joe