Clean Run - June 2017 - 51

The Value of Mistakes
When training our dogs, we want to give them a lot of correct repetitions. That insures,
early on, that our dogs find out they have some control over their environment and
are eager to work. But later in training there is also value in the dog making incorrect
choices-if we are good trainers and don't reward the incorrect choice.

DOES
THIS
PAY?

We can call these choices "mistakes" if we like, but they are really just the dog trying
to figure out what pays. That is often why, with younger dogs who are just finding out
about controlling their environment through the choices they make, you might have a
session or two where the dog offers all sorts of silly behaviors. They are simply asking you
questions: Does this behavior pay? How about this behavior? Well, what about this one?
With older dogs, you might be working a sequence and at the critical point the
dog chooses the wrong obstacle, so you don't reward. The next time through, the
dog chooses a different obstacle, but it's still the wrong one. They are giving you
information-you aren't being clear-and they are trying to figure out what pays!
Keep mistakes to a minimum, but learn to value those wrong choices
as information for-and from-your dog.

tuted a correct entry! With insufficient
training on entries, it became easier
for the dog to avoid weave poles altogether rather than attempt an entry
and be wrong. But by checking her
dog's understanding using a measurable value, she not only found out her
dog did not know weave poles, she
discovered exactly where the problem
area was. With this information in hand
we figured out a plan for her to work
entries at home. Several times in class
she wisely skipped the weave poles
because she did not want to mess with
where she was in her entry training.
Fast forward to about a month later.
Not only did her dog hit all of her
weave pole entries in class, her dog
did not have a worried look on her
face and did not want to avoid them
at all. The dog's confidence level was
impressive! How did she do this? By
doing two simple things. First, she
isolated entries and set up the dog for
success. She started by working just
three poles, as this was the easiest way
for her to show the dog the difference
between a correct entry and a wrong
entry. Correct entries were rewarded.
Wrong entries were ignored or marked
with a neutral "try again" or similar cue.
It's important to note here that the
absence of a reward is very important
information for the dog. It lets the dog
know that the non-rewarded behavior
June 17 | Clean Run

is not the behavior you want. Often,
we'll see young dogs trying all sort of
goofy things. They are simply testing
to see what you will reward. If you reward "they're trying so hard" or "they're
cute" when it is an incorrect behavior,
you are giving the dog bad information! Second, she kept track of her
dog's success at entries and did not
put weave poles into sequences until
the dog was at or above 80%.
By the way, the change in the handler's
confidence was huge too. Because her
dog really does know the weave poles
now, the handler no longer needed
to babysit the dog's entries so she can
focus instead on her handling.
Using this simple 80% rule gives you
valuable information about what your
dog really does know. Not only does it
help you determine if a behavior you are
training is progressing, but you can use
this information with older, more accomplished dogs when you think a behavior
you have trained is no longer up to your
standards. For example, my older dog
Kate recently decided she no longer
had to lie down on the table. After going through all the excuses and reasons
why my dog would no longer like the
table, I finally decided I needed to test
my down. Although there were some
legitimate health reasons for her to
avoid down, once those were addressed

I was a bit embarrassed to discover that
not only wasn't her down anywhere near
80% on the table, her down wasn't near
80% anywhere! Health issues notwithstanding, I had failed to maintain a basic
learned behavior.
Obviously, when you finally get to the
finished behavior you are aiming for
closer to a 100% success rate. But in
training the 80% rule allows you to
progress at a pace neither too slow nor
too fast for your dog.
When you are checking for an 80%
success level it is important to test all
of the variations your dog may eventually encounter; for example, can your
dog be successful when you front
cross, blind cross, rear cross, send him,
recall him, and run with him? Staying
with the weave poles as an example,
I recently trained weaves with my
young dog. At each step-that is, each
time I checked to see if I was at 80%
success so I could move on to the next
step-I made sure I included in my
repetitions angled approaches, rear
crosses before and after the poles,
front and blind crosses before and
after the poles, running with her, sending her, calling her through the poles
and any other variations I could think
of. If she was not at 80% for two consecutive sessions doing all that, then
she wasn't ready to move on.
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