Criteria: a standard of judgment or criticism; a rule or principle for evaluating or testing something.
On first blush, it reads a little harsh, doesn’t it? But it is one of the most important concepts in dog training. Not in the “criticism” sense, but in the evaluation of our training and performance sense.
I make a point of telling new students that dogs don’t generalize easily, especially when they are young and “green”. I wrote about this in a previous post, so I won’t rehash it here. Sometimes I neglect to tell students that unless you have goals or end results in mind with your dog, training can become boring for you, which translates into excessive boredom for your dog, which can result in undesired behavior. And then there are two options: complain or re-train.
Goals don’t need to be lofty. It might be as simple as getting your pup to walk nicely on a leash. Or maybe you want your dog to come when called from the back yard. A goal!
When Jake was younger, I told my trainer that my goal from an Obedience class was to be able to take him to the veterinary office without having to fret that he would make a grand scene by reacting to other dogs in the lobby. With Mollie, one of my current goals is to have a nice start line stay in agility when I deem I need one. Goals!
Here’s where the harder part comes in: setting your criteria toward that goal. And just when you thought that was all…the hardest part of all enters: maintaining that criteria.
All of us, at one time or another, will be guilty of NOT maintaining the criteria set for our goals. I have been very guilty of it…and then I spend an inordinate amount of time complaining about it. Just ask my training partners. That was the wake-up call I needed.
So, in Mollie’s case, when I ask her for a start line “Wait”, my criteria is this: her hind end must stay on the ground until I release her. Sounds simple, right? In theory, it is. Black and white. No gray. Enter the difficult part – maintaining the criteria.
Initially, when I started training for this, I would let the criteria slide. If she self-released, I would go ahead and let her run the course. This taught her that I wasn’t serious about the criteria (wait there until given permission to go), so why should she be. And she was rewarded by being allowed to play the game that she loves. One of my training partners called me on it after watching me struggle. I believe her exact words were, “Why aren’t you maintaining your criteria?” Ummmmm…yeah….
So, a new plan was devised: STICK TO YOUR CRITERIA. That way, it is black and white both for the dog and for the handler. Now, if she breaks her wait in practice, I return to her, move her back another foot from the first obstacle, and ask for it again. It’s not done meanly, just matter-of-factly. You may ask what this teaches her…remember, she loves the game. When she is moved farther back from starting, psychologically, she’s farther from the game. I’ll keep moving her back until she maintains the criteria. Her reward for success: being able to play with me on the agility course. Huh, how about that…
Dogs really crave consistency and clear communication. Most of us don’t do it very well. We jabber, we gesticulate, we sigh…all of these serve to confuse our poor canine pals. Once we set a goal, determine the criteria, and stick to it, it’s amazing what heights our dogs will soar to.
Stay Paw-sitive!
