Do what works

[Donald McCaig]

Dear Wouldbe Sheepdoggers,

 

My Sainted Mother liked to say (with an exasperated sigh): "Well, Donald, you can always learn from your mistakes."

 

With All Due Respect, Ma; not so. Unfortunately, there are an infinite number of mistakes, large and small, subsumed or bare naked and one could live a long time making new mistakes without repeating them.

 

Because so many of our worst mistakes are repititions: "I can take one drink/smoke one cigarette/snort once/vote republican: the "learn from one's mistakes" mantra seems plausible: Just Don't take that drink etc . . .

 

But in sheepdog training, as in life, one can avoid repititous mistakes and remain unsuccessful. So what, you don't drink any more. Glad you've stopped cutting yourself off at the knees. Now - what you gonna do?

 

At first, sheepdog handlers do - literally - nothing right. They're wrong unclipping their dog, wrong going to the post, wrong when they send . . .

 

But after a while, they start doing a few things right. Think "Beatles in Hamburg". And by expanding this rightness, more rightness becomes available to them.

 

One never becomes totally "right", no more than one becomes totally good or happy. But that first good run, that first open finish - they are your proper tutors. Narrow is the gate and straight is the way but its easier when the path's well lit and habitual.

 

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/when-deviants-do-good/

 

Build good habits. Do what works.

 

Donald McCaig

[Pam Wolf]

The problem for beginners is they often cannot see the whole picture, or they cannot see the forest for the trees. If I ask you to draw a picture of my house, but you couldn't. This is often the same with nivices. They do not have a clue what they are trying to achieve. Therefore it is hard to recognize mistakes.

 

Once you learn to recognize mistakes, then you are on your way to improving. But if for whatever reason, kennel blindness, lack of experience, lack of stock knowledge or just an inability to see behaviour, then you will not progress well in this venture of training a stock dog. This does not make trialing the ONLY way to see the goal. Good work is good work be it at home, bringing the cows back from the neighbor's fiels, finding the goats out on the cliffs or whatever. And people are resistant to change.

 

Moreover in the dog world, people often want the 'quick fix' and a technique that might work with dog A will not work for Dog B but often beginners seem to think 9as do many trainers) there is a once size fits all approach to dog training. there are tools which are 'forbidden' and many will not try because of this, yet these tools may be the very thing necessary to help that particular dog/handler learn how to do things the best way for them.

[TEC]

Seek strengths, expand/extend ways that work, don't repeat mistakes, and realize that the base of a pyramid communicates its strength throughout the structure. Words to live by, and thank you. Congrat's on the release of, "Mr. and Mrs. Dog".

 

Pam rightly says a handler has to have the ability to recognize a strength and a flaw -- not get lost in the "forest". That thought struck a positive chord in me. If my coach/mentor is reading this, I want him to know that IMO there is no better handler and dog trainer in North America. My dog and I elevated our work through him, although before meeting we plodded for a long while. For me, it's about developing full potential, and every team is unique.

 

It's vital, IME, that trainers/coaches always give the long answer. In the event that time constraints and other circumstances of a coaching session only allow for a short explanation or none at all, then soon thereafter a full analysis should be provided. Train the trainer. The beginner handler has to follow-through with regular practice on-his-own, therefore he/she should fully understand the tips and strategies which are imparted, as well as the reasoning behind them. Fatigued motorcycle repair instructor to novice: "Turn that screw. Listen. Turn it back. Fasten this. Slide that. See you next week." Young student goes home, and nearly strips the threads from the adjusting screw turning it this way and that, trying to understand how to make his engine run better, not realizing that the instructor's lesson, had he fully explained, was that twisting the screw is merely one diagnostic test, and not the repair itself.

 

My earlier instructors had a deep knowledge of stock dogs, yet some didn't have a good manner of communicating that knowledge to me, an inexperienced handler. The why, for me, is so important to learning. Why was that behavior overlooked last week, but not this week? Why are we taking a new approach today? Why, when you give that cue to your dog it works, but you don't want me to try. What is the goal of this exercise? Is this lesson merely a temporary training tool, and not to be used on a regular basis for the long term? Should I continue this maneuver in this way, regardless whether it works for us? What portions of this lesson are modified for the personality of my dog? Etc, etc. It's hard, and yes, a little like being disoriented in the forest for the first time. Knowing the nuts and bolts how-to's, as well as the reasoning behind the lesson, makes for better/smarter students. -- Kind regards, TEC

[Liz P]

Once you learn to recognize mistakes, then you are on your way to improving.

<-- this

 

I've had to unlearn many bad habits that I didn't even know I had. It takes more than trial and error to become a better handler. Novice handlers often need others to point out their mistakes.

 

Young student goes home, and nearly strips the threads from the adjusting screw turning it this way and that, trying to understand how to make his engine run better

<-- and this

 

I also need to know the theory and reasoning behind a method in order to improve. For that I need mentors and the collective wisdom of the generations of shepherds that have come before me.

[Smalahundur]

Yeah, an experienced mentor, that would be nice...

[mbc1963]

Well, so true in every venue, yes?

 

I train 8th graders. But my success has very much to do with my 28 years of dropping practices that failed and repeating practices that worked. Tweaking, modifying, shoring up. I imagine that's how people improve in every line of work. In fact, I'd say that people who can't succeed are the ones who "keep on doing what they're doing and expect different results." (I think I'm quoting Dr. Phil there.)

 

One of my ongoing frustrations as a teacher is the public perception that new teachers are super because they're so excited and enthusiastic about their jobs, while we veterans are "cynical" or "jaded." New teachers, for all their excitement and enthusiasm, are like new trainers, or like puppies - hardly knowing up from down, hardly recognizing whether their lessons work or don't work. I thought I was great at 22 - and now I look back at my old lessons and groan with the retrograde knowledge that I was setting myself up for the failures they produced. I may have had the core of a good teacher in me, then, but I needed to grow up and grow wiser before she could find her way out.

 

(Seems that in all other fields, experience is valued - who would choose a brand new brain surgeon, or plumber, or - heaven forbid - endodontist!?)

 

There's no path to knowledge and skill except practice and hard, dumb experience.

 

Mary

[TEC]

...One of my ongoing frustrations as a teacher is the public perception that new teachers are super because they're so excited and enthusiastic about their jobs, while we veterans are "cynical" or "jaded." New teachers, for all their excitement and enthusiasm, are like new trainers, or like puppies - hardly knowing up from down, hardly recognizing whether their lessons work or don't work...

 

Thank you for saying this so well. "Perky" is the over-used adjective in this vicinity. WTH? How about realistic, seasoned, and effective? "Jaded" is a label supervisors mis-apply to a person who expresses skepticism about a particular modern fad. The word, as used in education, has little true connection to his/her enthusiasm for job/kids or openness to change. Here's to the old-hands.

 

Did I get OT for a moment? Education and management are such broad subjects.

 

Much of stockdog training is based on tried-and-true methods and philosophies that have been handed down through the generations in books and word-of-mouth. They work. They evolved specifically for herding dogs. Occasionally an ancient way best fades into obscurity, but for the most part there's not much new. Good trainers apply the traditional methods with a nuance/finesse that works for each dog's temperament and personality. -- Kind regards, TEC