I am WAY behind on posting my 2×2 sessions, but I just had an interesting session with Raph that I wanted to comment on.
In my opinion – Raph just made a crucial connection in his head. He has been doing great – but today I watched him prove that he has figured the game out. What I mean by that is this: he has figured out that the name of the game is going through the poles AND he has figured out that there is only one correct direction to go through. Seems obvious right? Well – if your dog heads toward the poles and then comes back (because you are so far from the poles) – they haven’t figured his part out yet. Or if your dog fails on a particular entry more than once – they haven’t figured this out.
In the past – when Raph made a mistake, I would call him back and retry from the same point. I try to let him figure it out – not making the entry easier for him. He was very good about trying over and over without shutting down. And usually I would not need to make the challenge easier. But it might take 4 or 5 tries.
Today I watched him consistantly fix each mistake on the next repetition. When I asked him for a particular hard entry, he missed it the first time, then (when he wasn’t rewarded) got it on the next rep. He did this several times.
I think many people would feel that this really meant he was figuring it out – compared to 4 or 5 misses. However, I think alot of people would miss what he had figured out. He hasn’t figured out the entry. He’s figured out the overall game. He’s figured out that he needs to go through the poles and that only one way works. But he hasn’t figured out WHICH way works. He’s flipping a coin. If he doesn’t get it right – he KNOWS to try the other way. That’s a big leap in thinking! But you still have to recognize that he’s flipping that coin. He doesn’t KNOW the right answer.
This happens in a lot of dog training situations. When a dog only knows sit and down, they might down when you say sit. When you say no, or don’t reward them, or whatever, they now know they should have sat and they get it right on the next rep. But it’s important to recognize when your dog has learned something, and when they’ve just narrowed it down to a 50/50 shot based on what they know and the context they are in.
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