In recent posts, I’ve written about four important tools in the dog trainer’s tool belt. They are: the dog’s ability to reason, association, repetition, and accuracy. Here are four more: consistency, coherence, timing, and incrementalism.
Consistency is often mentioned as an important element in child rearing and it is no less crucial in dog training. Consistency is the means by which dogs see patterns develop in our responses to them, and it is by these patterns that they come to understand what we are trying to communicate. Dogs learn by experience. If that experience is random, the result is a failure to learn. Being consistent can be difficult because it requires us to be disciplined— that is to be always aware that the way we interact with our dogs carries meaning for them whether we intend it or not.
Coherence and timing are closely related so let’s look at them together. Coherence simply means that our responses to our dogs need to be appropriate to what we are intending to teach them. Calling your dog to you and then punishing him for being slow about it is incoherent (and cruel) because it cannot produce the desired result. Timing is an important component of coherence because dogs live so much in the moment. When a dog is first learning to heel, he may only be in good heel position momentarily as he prances past you. If you’re a second and a half late with your praise you will be praising your dog for being out of position, thus making it harder for him to understand.
Last but not least is incrementalism. It can be a life saver with difficult or not so smart dogs because almost any exercise can be learned if broken into smaller bites (pun intended). Recently I had two different dogs that gave their owners some difficulty on the down exercise. They allowed themselves to be placed, but when we tried to get them to go down with just collar pressure, they stiffened their front legs and refused. Using incrementalism, both dogs learned to lie down reliably on command.
In my next post we will explore where our authority comes from. Bye ‘til then.
