“I can't understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I'm frightened by old ones.”
John Cage
The contrarian is one who questions, even rejects, popularly held opinions. It seems to us a fitting subject in working dog training. WHY? So much of what we do is based on human thinking-doing something the way someone else does it-instead of entering the dog's mind to discover a better (and usually easier) approach to dog training. Call it anthropomorphism, call it back brained, call it what ever (the dog won't know what you are talking about anyway); if we move to the dog's level instead of requiring it to come to the trainer's, oh-what a better world. In this section, we will attempt to speak in the lingua canis and shatter some of those tired old ways of applying good theory.
So, you have a slow recall. The dog was faster when it was younger. Now the ball is starting to disappear and the handler is just standing there, calling the dog. It starts out happy, but slows about ten feet away, flicks its ears back, and all your hard work ends up in a fast paced walk the last few feet. “This is easy to fix.”, you say. When the dog starts to slow, you turn and run away and, sure enough, it starts to speed up. See, that wasn't hard. Well, maybe not. The next session reverts to the dog's old slow-footed ways. Maybe only two or three hundred more times will fix the problem.
This is one of the best examples of not thinking like a dog. The reason it is slowing is the presence of the trainer. Even with the most non-abusive training, the dog becomes increasingly sensitive when it gets close to the trainer. We will explore this same phenomena in retrieval in another writing. So, it does make sense to run away, except the second the handler turns to run, the dog's behavior shifts instantly. It is no longer running to you, but running with you. It all turns into one big happy family, out for a jog. When you turn around after running, the dog shifts back again, i.e. this isn't going to work over five hundred times, let along three hundred.
In all dog training, we must address the problem, not skirt around it. In this case, it is the presence of the handler being fairly stationary that brings up social concerns in the dog's mind, resulting in the slowing.
The answer is to reassure the dog as it is running to you. When you call the dog's name, start walking toward it, praising and calling. When you are only a few feet away, stop and let the dog come the last few feet. It will quickly discover there is no real issue here. So what we have done is the opposite of the common wisdom, moving toward the dog, not away from it, with far better results.
It happens frequently. A young dog is taken onto the protection training field. The helper stands, hidden, behind a blind and peeks out. The dog alerts, starts barking and pulling on the lead. The helper leaves the blind and suspiciously starts to move toward the dog. The barking and pulling diminish and, then, the young dog starts to sniff the ground or observe a nearby tree, seeming to ignore the helper.
Observers will immediately conclude, “weak dog”, “avoidance” or even “Did someone allow another dog to relieve itself on the field? Look at the dog sniffing!” Guess what—none of these conclusions is right.
Instead what the trainer sees is conflict. The young dog starts out strongly, but as the helper approaches and invades the critical zone (see training article section), the dog has to think about defense. It wants to act aggressively and avoid at the same time, especially as the helper gets closer. Since it cannot do both at the same time, it finds some third kind of behavior to relieve the stress and conflict. In this case, the behavior, sniffing the ground, is called displacement.
With young, starting dogs, displacement is a common occurrence. When it is younger, it will totally ignore the helper, having no understanding of what is going on and not having the maturity to challenge the threat. As it matures, it starts to think in terms of defensive aggression, but this is a developmental process. In this case, the dog is not weak because it barked and pulled when the helper was in the alert zone. The fact that it is not strong enough to directly confront the helper only means that it is going through a transitional period where conflict is a common occurrence. The helper only needs to adjust training by relieving the pressure and bringing more prey training into the work. Odds are, within only a few months, the conflict will disappear.
