Ask your dog to do an obedience behavior. Now ask your dog to do a trick. Is there a difference in their demeanor? do they like the trick better? Are they happier, bouncier, and more enthusiastic for the trick than for the obedience behavior?
The way we train a behavior is how it will end up being presented. If we put pressure into a behavior (the perfect heel, or tuck sit, the snappy down) we sometimes kill the fun that the dog gets out of learning a new thing.
When we start 'dialing in' or 'fixing details' or worst of all, 'drilling', we tend to change our body language. We get tense, and picky. Instead of being the fun playmate, we become the nit-picky school teacher. Even if we are only using positive reinforcement!
The way out of this is as easy to say (and know!) as it is hard to do: play!
By remembering the value of play in our 'real' training, and by uing play, not as just a manuipulative means to an end, but as anctual give and take that frees up both parties, you emppower your dog to work harder, while presenting them with a picture that while we may be pickier, we are still striving for the same thing together.
Play puts you back on the same team.
But, a caveat: Play is not a quick tug and back to work. Dogs recognize this as what it is: a reward - tit-for-tat, payment. Rather, play must come from a place of natural joy and sometinmes (oftentimes!) its harder for us to do than for our dogs!
Play is not payment, rather it is the whole picture, the whole training episode is a game. Cues are simply part of the game. This changes the perspective from you do this and I'll do that, to lets agree on the rules and play this game together.
A collaborative mindset is far from easy for us goal-oriented humans! This is a You( actually - its a WE thing! I struggle with this all the time!) thing to work on! First, depending on your relationship, simply engaging in play at all may be difficult. I get It! I have a few dogs that I really struggle to pley with. Those dogs remain the hardest dogs to both live with and to train!
So, now, just take a second to get silly with your dog. Play, have fun, get into, don't have a gaol in mind, just enjoy a few seconds of the most important part of dog traininng: the love of our dogs!
Happy training!
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