Wheat or Chaff?

Wheat or Chaff? by Kay Laurence | Life with Dogs Chaff is indigestible by humans, but livestock can eat it and in agriculture it is used as livestock fodder, or is a waste material ploughed into the soil or burned. Oh yeah. Lots of Chaff blowing in the wind at present. My ribs were been jabbed more than a few times during the first few lockdown weeks in the boom, or bloom, in online learning in particular the video-teaching fest. This was not a healthy bloom in all cases. Many innocents are still being sold pure chaff in the forecourt of used car sales that is The Internet. The video-advert that promises delights of online training and in just five minutes your dog will look as shiny and new as this only-one-previous-owner JackaPoo. Run the sceptic app first What is the purpose of this video? To sell a product, to instruct or to inspire? It should be clear from the first viewing. Often we are seeing an unhealthy blend of talking head, dripping treats into bored dog, convincing you of their innate expertise. We see a dog tripping over stepping poles as the person lures the dog with eyes fixed to camera. A treat thrown behind a trainer, busy spewing verbal sunshine unaware of the dog desperately seeking a lost reward. The dog biting the hand that holds the toy. If this is a sales pitch, then firmly put the correct hat on and ignore cuteness or faux-sunshine. Fold your arms, sit back and then walk away from the credit card for at least 24 hours. If it still attracts after you have researched potential options, then pay up, join up and let your friends know about your experience. Value for money, a well invested learning opportunity should be shared super-loud to drown out the explosion of fake click-baiting. If this is to inspire then enjoy the emotional response, more than once. Save it and visit often. Ask what element inspires and how you could capture some of that inspiration. Is it within reach, perhaps just a small element you could enjoy? Inspiration often comes from the simplest of moments or from a lifetime of practice and understanding. We know that the simplicity of appearance derives from deeply skilful application. Run your in-built sceptic app to seek out ego as opposed to inspiration. “Showing and telling is not teaching” This popped up in an article I was browsing and is attributed to “Vargas”, whether Julie or Ernest is still under investigation . Many videos are compiled on this philosophy that if you are shown what to do, told what to do, then you will learn what to do. But that is far from reality. Teaching a person how to do something i

s a quite different process. It is about engineering the environment so that you can learn, in your individual way, how to process the information, practice the key skills, self-assess how that practice is proceeding by comparing to …. what? Do you know what it should look like? Do you know what it should feel like? Are you aware of the potential errors, how to recognise them and prevent them? Teaching is measured by what the student has learned. Laurence, and all the rest of the skilled teachers in the world. Turn the sound off Watch the show-and-tell video with no sound. Let your visual impressions absorb without distraction. This is what I am looking for: Connection flowing between the person and the dog and the dog and the person. A two-way feedback without a pause. Demonstrating a history of understanding, skills and experience of listening to the dog, responding to the dog, adjusting to the dog. Continuous emotional balance that has no extremes, highs or dips. No immediate switch between arousal and confusion. Uncertainty interwoven with grab-bite play. Smooth flow to the behaviours as they move from one to another and around the cycle of information, response and reward. Clear information that is easily observed, where we can identify the moment of the cue, the understanding in the response and the mutual pleasure of the reward. As the observer we understand what is being learned If you need a full-running commentary to tell you what the dog is learning, then the dog is not learning. You are being sold. The excuses for why this dog is not doing what is expected, is often an excuse for poor preparation or understanding. The hand that is intended as a cue to sit but gets a nose bump from the dog. What has the dog learned? Hands are nose targets, the dog is not able to tell the difference. The fingers that are bitten as the dog is lured to the down, the weave, round the object. What has the dog learned? Eat as quick as possible and eat fast. The dog banging into the person or jumping out of the way of the person as they approach? What has the dog learned? Where is the spatial awareness, what is the key skill missing? An overload of information is not an indication of expertise You brain will only remember a few steps of a process, and probably the last steps when the first steps are probably most crucial. Loading with too much information, particularly when this is not relevant to you preparing to apply what you are learning is a distraction. This is not the moment to tell you about which treats to use, where to place the treat pouch or which one to

buy – that is definitely a “close the tab” moment and delete from your history. If a series of prompts are needed before you can begin, then too much information is being delivered. Learning the action in small clusters, building the fluency and then combining those clusters. You do not want to be halfway through baking realise that you need to switch to another page to learn how to “blend flour”. The skills you need before you begin should be clear. Poor presentation or poor preparation? Presentation of a process should be well rehearsed, well prepared and contains many skills. Trying to be a trainer and be a presenter at the same time is beyond the skills of most of us. We are not cooks where “one has been prepared earlier”. Professional cooks have 1000s of hours of preparing that same dish, or using that same technique under extreme conditions to refine their skills. That does not make them good presenters, that is another skill set they will need to learn. An amateur video showing poor preparation, where props are not in the right place, the background is too distracting or other dogs are off camera making a noise. Heads that get chopped off, dogs that run out of sight. Poor preparation in the skills of making a video. Having a tool that can video does not make a videographer. Watch and enjoy … the learning experience that this person has just survived. The whole process of making an instructional video is a range of mountains, very few of which contain the description of “curve”. They are steep, sharp, with massive drops between the peaks. So if the sun is shining and you have a camera - go make a video. You will need an entire new notebook to write down all the Things I Should Do Before I Make Another Video. It is a learning experience in itself, and can have great value when you approach it as a learning opportunity. If you feel the urge to share it, keep it between friends, get some actionable feedback, then set aside the rest of the week to go and do it again and again and again. As always with signing up for something new, there is nothing to beat personal recommendation – provided you share the same values and ambitions as that person and are not allergic to wheat. Chaff makes great compost when mixed with the right bacteria. Building A Generous Future Maybe it feels like a doddle because my life with her wasn’t one of competing against who she is, trying to mould her into something else, or even just worrying about the potential fallout of every decision I made. Read More Surprising Puppy Surprising Puppy. With obnoxious moments. After introd

ucing the obnoxious puppy as a youngster I am knocked over by the Delightful Young Man he is turning into…… Read More It’s Not Training A carefully planned learning pathway, paced to suit that particular learner for their life ahead. Read More Don’t Let Them Learn Becoming aware that we share our lives with premier learners, dogs, is about saving you frustration, despair, anxiety and endless hours further down the road. Read More A New Puppy. Oh Joy. Impulse buying the wrong sofa can be rectified if you swallow the expense. Impulse buying a puppy can result in personal grief for you and your family and quite possibly result in a very unhappy future or end the life of that puppy. Read More Obnoxious Puppy The delight of your new puppy is probably going to last a few weeks, maybe four if you are lucky. When 12 weeks old hits, and you will feel a slam, the Delight is going to demonstrate ungrateful, obnoxious traits. Read More Dogs are Born To Learn We can build tremendous learners when we get beyond the idea that “dogs are trained”. Read More A Road to Nowhere When familiarity is stripped away we seek recognisable signposts that will take us back to comfort and security. This is survival instinct. It is worth listening to as it keeps us alive. Read More A Day of Learning A no-training day does not mean he gets a lazy day lying idly in the sun. Learning is still happening and this is significant and important for his development. Read More The Experienced Dog Knowing your dog has receive sufficient preparation does not mean every eventuality, but a range of different conditions so that when the unexpected happens they will draw on their skills and solve the issue. Read More Be-toothed Learning Machines The thing they don’t tell you is that raising a puppy is DANGED HARD WORK. Biting everything, peeing everywhere, eating anything; not for the faint hearted. Read More One dog watching The other dog working or ….how to train the spectators to quietly rest and watch whilst you work, play, teach a single member of the group Read More Cue Seeking is Connection Connection is very individual and to be authentic we have to observe, slow down, understand our dogs and meet them where they are. Read More Reasons to use a clicker The concept of “being a clicker trainer” is always going to lead to argument and misunderstanding because it cannot exist alongside the science and technology. It is a “fakery” of our time. The clicker itself is a simple tool that when used in conjunction with technology provides clarity and understanding in teaching. Read More What’s Cooking?

A Warning About Recipes Recipes for “training” dogs are so prevalent in how we live with and talk about them that their existence often goes unquestioned. Read More No room for mechanics If your ambition is to have good mechanics in communication to animals then you may find yourself blocked into a tight corner Read More Going Shopping This is a joint travelling adventure. It completely resets the learning and can easily extend the reinforcement process. Read More 3 Comments Iris Maxfield on 2nd May 2020 at 9:40 pm Many online courses now coming up that are including the whole package, buy this package and start your own online dog training courses, like a book of recopies to read out. That’s very different to those who are taking their existing classes online in the current lock down, with social distancing likely to stay in place for a very long time. I think it would better to guide budding teachers/trainers to courses that teach how to set up online training courses. Whether their subject is cookery, spinning, upholstery, or training cats. So for the experience and knowledge they have and wish to pass on through an online business, while continuing to grow. Reply Kay Laurence on 3rd May 2020 at 9:46 am There is an excellent (long) article on this here. the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning . There are “complete” package for selling dog training online – only recently a rash of puppy courses, which are probably a lot better than the emergency conversion, but if you have the choice of 46 puppy courses from anywhere in the world, it still comes down to recommendation from a source you can trust. Reply Iris Maxfield on 3rd May 2020 at 12:49 pm A good read. Thank you. Reply Submit a Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment * Name * Email * Website Δ