There is one phrase that I often hear at agility trials that just drives me crazy. I cannot tell you the number of times I have seen a handler walking away from a non-qualifying run muttering the words, “she just blew me off out there!” The implication is that the handler was doing everything they were supposed to and the dog, for reasons known only to the dog, decided that they would ignore the handler and do something else. Is that really how it went down?
There are only three reasons I can think of that a dog would not respond to a cue that we have trained. All three are valid reasons for not responding. And all three reasons are things that we, as trainers, have some control over with our dogs. To find out why our dog isn’t responding, we can ask ourselves 3 questions when our dog “blows us off.”
First we should ask: “Did my dog actually hear/see the cue?” It’s possible in a noisy environment that our dog couldn’t make out our cue in the midst of the other sounds. If it’s a visual cue, it might be that we were not in our dog’s line of sight or perhaps they turned their head just as we were giving the cue. So before we assume that we are being ignored, we should be sure that our dog did, in fact, get the information (the cue) from us!
Second, we need to honestly ask: “Does my dog really understand what that cue means?” Too often I see trainers work with their dog on a behaviour and as soon as they get the dog to perform that behaviour on cue 4 or 5 times in a row, the assume that the dog has internalized and learned that cue and behaviour for life. We need to be honest with ourselves and be sure that we have done enough training for that behaviour in a variety of different circumstances and environments before we can expect perfect responses every time.
The third and most complex question we need to ask is: “Is it worth it for my dog to respond?” Some trainers will tell you it is really quite simple. If you give your dog a cue that they know, they should do what you ask because they love you or respect you or enjoy working for you. But it’s more complex than that. Has the dog been rewarded for doing the behaviour in the past? How often? How much do they value those rewards? Has the handler been consistent with rewarding the behaviour or do they sometimes use the behaviour to punish the dog (e.g., making the dog sit and stay when they have been bad)? There is a lot that goes into motivation and I would encourage you to read up on how to motivate your dog and the importance of being consistent.
So do these dogs just “blow off” their handler on the agility course just to pursue their own agenda? If I ask these three questions, most of the time the answer is no, not really. With good clear cues, solid training, and keeping our dogs highly motivated to work with us, the chance that our dog will “blow us off” drops to nearly zero. Why would that be? Well, because they know what we asked for, know it well enough that it is easy to do, and they value doing that behaviour for us because of the good history of rewards and good things that have come from it.
We control the cues. We control the training and learning. And we have the power to motivate our dogs to work with us. Saying that your dog was “just blowing you off” is just an excuse for not taking care of the other three.
Eric
Share your thoughts!