In sports, it’s generally believed that attitude trumps talent. Why? Because talent can only take you so far, but a good attitude has an almost limitless ceiling. The right attitude makes it possible to work through something even when it’s hard—it allows for growth. Talent alone typically results in short sports careers because once the competition catches up, talent gives up. Now, if you can combine talent and attitude, that’s when greatness is achieved. Coaches know that they can’t change the talent a person is born with, but they can help cultivate the right attitude in a player. A good coach should be focusing on cultivating a good attitude as much as or even more than they focus on teaching physical skills. There’s correlation to dogs here, so stay with me.
I acquired my first hunting dog nearly 30 years ago, and since that time, I’ve had the privilege of working with dozens, if not hundreds, of hunting and/or field trial dogs. Some of them have been phenomenal—the type of dogs that are enthusiastic to learn, driven in the field, and level-headed. Others have been on the other end of the spectrum—apathetic toward anything that required effort, reluctant to learn, and generally better suited as a family pet than a hunting companion.
If you’ve owned even a few dogs in your lifetime, I am sure that you can relate to this. All dogs are different from each other, and some are easier to work with than others. I know from experience that there are few things more frustrating than bringing home the next canine hunting superstar and ending up with a dog that’s unwilling to work and relegated to full-time pet status. So, the question becomes this: is there a way to give a dog a “good attitude?” Or at the very least, are there things that can be done to stack the deck in your favor? Coaches harp on attitude with their players because attitude can be changed, and I am a firm believer that there are things that we can do to help our dogs have better attitudes. Unfortunately, we can’t just say, “change your attitude” to our dogs; we have to take a different approach.
Changing Your Dogs Attitude I’m going to walk through some of the methods that I use to improve attitude in my dogs; but before I do that, I think it’d be good to establish the specific attitude I’m looking to cultivate. Ideally, I want a dog that makes an effort to figure out the desired behaviors in a lesson, doesn’t shut down from confusion, is capable of staying focused for the entirety of a training session, and in general has a strong desire to learn. If a dog consistently brings that attitude to a training session, there’s a high likelihood that the vast majority of our training sessions will be productive and that the end result will be a dog that anyone would want to hunt over.
That all sounds great, huh? Now how do we make it happen?!? No two dogs are alike, and some will never have the best attitude (just like humans!); but here are some things I keep in mind to make sure I’m giving my pups the best chance at having the attitude I’m looking for.
Correlate Behaviors with Results: I want my pups to understand from a very young age that they can get what they want when they offer me what I want (operant conditioning). When a pup learns that its behaviors can result in rewards, that realization typically creates drive to do those behaviors. This psychology is no different than what works for humans: the vast majority of us go to work not because the work is the end goal, but because of the paycheck that we know comes at the end. A puppy that understands this paycheck principle is a puppy that takes initiative, and it makes it so much easier for the trainer to teach new behaviors (skills).
The opposite of this would be the trainer using force to generate desired behaviors. In my experience, when a pup is made to do a behavior, it often takes the enthusiasm out of the action for that pup. And who can blame the pup? I wouldn’t be enthusiastic about it either if I was being forced to do something!
It’s easy to help a pup understand this concept. I start out when they’re very young—usually seven or eight weeks. I’ll put a Cato Board on the ground and stand next to it with some small treats in my hand. When the pup gets on the Cato Board, I don’t say a word, I simply give them a treat. Each time they hop on the Cato Board, they get a treat. This goes on for several sessions, then the treats cease for that behavior. Out of confusion, and given enough time, that pup will typically eventually sit on the Cato Board. I immediately treat that behavior (timing is everything—make sure you have the treat ready!). After a few sessions of this, typically the pup is hopping on the Cato Board, putting its butt down, and imploring me for a treat with its eyes. Voila! I’ve now conditioned a desired behavior without giving a single command, touching the pup, or getting my blood pressure up. And the best part? The pup wants to do this behavior because it knows it will get paid for it.
This is the first building block for conditioning a strong work ethic in a pup. Throughout its life, I’ll use this same technique (applied in different ways) to teach other desired behaviors.
Keep It Short and Simple: When a five-year-old child joins a baseball team, they start out playing t-ball and have very few rules, infrequent practices, and short games. There’s a reason for this. It keeps it fun for that child. As their love for the game grows and they mature, rules will be stricter, practices longer, and games more intense. Conversely, if we held a five-year-old baseball player to the same standards of an MLB player, it would not take long for that child to quit the sport altogether due to the extreme demands. It is no different for puppies. If we demand perfection and/or have long sessions with our pups, it becomes exponentially more likely that our pup is going to check-out completely and lose all interest in working.
For me, a typical training session for the first six months of a puppy’s life could hardly be called a “session.” It consists of one or two retrieves, sitting on a Cato Board for a reward (either a retrieve or a treat depending on the pup), and maybe a little bit of recall. These sessions are short—typically two or three minutes long—and they always end with the puppy wanting more. If they end with me wanting more and the pup wanting less, I have failed the pup in that session. Not sure how much you should be doing in a session? A good rule of thumb is to do less than you think is the right amount.
As the pup’s intensity and desire to work grows, I’ll start to ask for a little more in a session, but I do not get in a hurry. There’s very little to be gained by pushing hard, definitely not enough value to offset the potential downside. A good litmus test to know if you’re pushing too hard is to take an honest look at who is bringing the excitement to each session. If you’re the one that’s trying to build the excitement and get your pup fired up, that’s a great sign that you’re doing too much. I ALWAYS want my pup to be the one bringing the excitement. Your pup’s body language should show energy and enthusiasm in every single session. If your pup doesn’t look like this in your sessions, your job as a trainer is to find a way to make your sessions more exciting to your pup. Shorter sessions and a bigger paycheck are usually a good starting point.
Enjoy the Process: Not every pup is going to come with the potential to have a Michael Jordan work ethic. It just isn’t possible. Genetics are important, and even when we get the genetics right, not all pups are created equal. However, our job as dog owners is to make sure we’re bringing out the best in our hunting buddies; and it starts with developing the right attitude. I know how strong the temptation is to push hard with a pup. It’s tempting to think that the more we do the better off they’ll be (on a side note, I see this almost every weekend at my sons’ sporting events—lots of yelling parents pushing their kids to their limits and beyond). Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. If the attitude isn’t there, all of our effort will be mostly wasted. Get the attitude right, and the rest will be easy. Good luck, take it slow, be purposeful, and enjoy the process.
