Training.
Training dogs is always fun, intriguing and yet frustrating to a certain degree. Dog training encompasses all of our emotions, whether they are good or bad. Dogs bring out the worst and best in us, and it depends on us how to prepare ourselves to show up doing our best.
Being our best.
But when you are just starting, just beginning, it is incredibly hard to show up as the best dog trainer version of yourself. It is incredibly humbling to recognize that you will fail. You will fail and fail and fail. Before finally getting it right, only to fail at another thing.
So that is great, is it not? You can train your dog and know you will fail in that. How do you become better? Continue failing. What do I do after? Continue failing until you have got it right, and then fail again at something new.
Jack Knox talks about this in his book, without failure we cannot help our dog, or ourselves, to become better. To make a better decision, that might not cause failure. Every training session, we try to get better, accomplish something, but if our dog is perfect, are we really training or maintaining? If we are not trying something new, something that might cause our dog to not be perfect, then are we actually training?
In my world, training - especially dog training - involves failure. Failure to do it perfectly, failure because not listening, failure because something somehow did not work.
Asking questions, failing and trying again are the cornerstones in my training approach and how I have been taught by my teachers and mentors.
Most dog trainers have probably experienced the failures you are experiencing, so go ahead and ask them how they fixed their problems.
Ask them to help you understand your dog better. I do not think there is one dog trainer out there, who
would turn their back on you for one simple training question. I know there are bad apples in every branch of hobbies, but I believe that every dog trainer or coach or behaviorist deep down only wants the best for you and your dog. So why not ask for help? Why not go out of your way and try to communicate with these bigger people? All they can say is no.
Big words there Addi. Big big words…I am laughing at the above paragraph, because have I done this? No, I have not.
I have not even published my Youtube video because I am utterly petrified of failing (I have now done this, and while I hid away for the remainder of the day after the publication, I am proud to say, I have exceeded my goals for my very first
video!!). Of being laughed at because I have an accent, because I am new. I have all the excuses. ALL the excuses.
But they do not help me in my dog training, in my business, in my life, because at the end of the day you just have to do it or maybe you do not. Just know that you will not grow if you decide to stay hidden. Everybody’s first sucks.
I think that if you have a need of your dog - a need like a sit or lie down or get the sheep from two fields away - that you can ask for it.
It won’t be perfect the first time, it won’t even be perfect the tenth time, but every time that you try and “fail”, you learn another thing. Knowledge of how to handle a situation differently, how to ask differently and most importantly you learn something new about your dog.
At some point, all of those failures add up to something magnificent. Why? Because who else is going to show up time and time again and try their hardest for you, other than your dogs?
Bella has been the biggest lesson for me in this.
My girl tries and tries to do right by me, to give me everything she has, and sometimes we work really well together, and things go super.
However, most of the time, and especially at the new farm, we are struggling. We are struggling with holding in our frustration, anger and just sheer panic when sheep leave through gates. At four years old, my border collie still struggles with panic. What an utter failure I am in training my dog.
But am I?
Am I a horrible trainer?
Or am I a novice handler, who is learning on the job just like Bella?
Looking at my life and situation with my sheep and Bella, I think I am a novice handler, who struggles in reading sheep’s intentions, handling a young dog, who I also have a very solid relationship with.
So if that is what I am and have, what does that cause?
It causes friction between Bella and I, it causes stressful situations (read this as sheep are in the workshop…) in which we lose our brain, tact and gracefulness and make a mess of things. Is that good? No, it is not. By any means, it is not good. You never want to be chasing sheep, especially pregnant sheep, or worry sheep or put them through super stressful situations.
Sometimes, however, that is how we (Bella and I, humanity) learn, we learn through our failures, our challenges and our mistakes.
No one got hurt, or even if they would have gotten hurt, I have a large animal vet close by, medication and supplies on hand, and my mentor on speed dial at this point.
I am not too worried about this part anymore. I used to be absolutely terrified of hurting a sheep.
To the point where I stressed out Bella so badly that she either refused to work, grabbed a sheep out of sheer panic, or ate sheep poop. We work and train and figure it out.
Is it always pretty? No. But do we try our hardest, and try to do better the next time?
Absolutely.
WE learn through OUR failures.
It is not comfortable to experience failure, some say it is stressful and yet others will be so terrified that they will never try. So what sort of dog trainer, person, coach, business owner are you?
I do not want to belong to the second group, and I have spent the better part of three years working actively on myself embracing scary things..
My new farm brings its own challenges, and I am bringing my inexperienced self and my dogs in addition to those. I believe we are ready to do this. So we fail, and
try again.
Every day I am learning something new. Every day I question whether or not this was the right decision for me and honestly EVERY DAY I am reminded that I could have not imagined a better life for myself and my dogs.
So happy training and good luck failing.
Addi and her dogs
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