E332: 로리 휴스턴(Laurie Huston) - 어질리티에서 집념(Commitment) 가르치기

I put lots of time into planning my training. Um, I just, I think about like, what does consistency look like in regards to this task? How can I maintain my connection? Um, how can I be clear? That planning lets me, I think it sets up way, way more productive sessions. Um, I find that I'm better able to respond to things that happen in the moment. Um, this, this spring, one of a friend of mine shared a phrase with me that I had never heard. And I thought was just, I love it. It, her phrase was prior proper planning prevents poor performance. And it was just something that I just wholeheartedly agree with. Um, and I loved it. Can you, can you do it one more time for us? It's a little bit of a tongue twister. It is prior proper planning prevents poor performance. I like that. I know. It's great. Digging into that a little bit more, have you always, um, kind of been a positive trainer? I mean, you mentioned you kind of started out in obedience a long time ago. So, um, do you want to kind of share that story a little bit? Yeah. Um, I think I came into dog training as things were starting to shift to more positive things in my, in my area. Anyhow, um, I don't know if the shift had already happened in other places, but in our area that was still, um, it was still very mixed. So I started out, um, with a mix when, uh, when I started with my first two dogs, the big shift came for me when I got my third dog, Chico. Um, he was nothing like the first two dogs. Um, he was extremely soft, extremely sensitive and things that worked for my other dogs did not work for him. Um, I think my pivot point was the day that I took him out to train and he ran away and he didn't come back. And I'm not going to lie. I went inside and I had a great big ugly cry. And when I was done crying, I thought it started me questioning, like, how am I doing things and how can I do things better? Um, and he really pushed me into finding new ways to track, tackle my training tasks. And he led me into a much more positive state of training. It's such like a big moment, right? Like you're, you're out there training and they popped out hard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was brutal. Um, but I mean, it led to really good things. So I know you're also a certified one mind dogs trainer. Do you want to talk a little bit about kind of handling your handling approach, how it aligns with those you coach some of that? Sure. Um, I've always really been a why person. Um, I, I need to understand why I'm doing something. And I found that why in agility through, um, through understanding the cues from the dog's perspective.

Um, I had been doing that before I got involved with one mind. Um, and I thought one mind did a good job of, um, producing information. Um, but my experience with each of my dogs and each of the students that I've worked with has shown me that each of us is so different and each dog is so different. And what might be right for one person or one dog might not be right for somebody else or another dog. And so my goal as an instructor is to meet each person and each dog where they're at and just try to help them work together to be connected, clear, and consistent with both their training and their handling, no matter what system that they are using. So you've got a workshop coming up for FDSA, um, specifically on commitment games as coming out the Sunday after this should go up. So, um, if you're listening to this, the week that it came up guys, just a couple of days, can you talk about what commitment looks like to you and kind of why it's important in the sport? Absolutely. Um, I love commitment. Uh, commitment to me is just such a big piece of the agility puzzle. We use it on every single obstacle out there. And I think increasing commitment can help so many teams. Um, everyone talks about being able to see that commitment point, but I think it's more than seeing it. Um, as humans, I think we have this huge delay between what we see and the actual response time. So I think, um, the games that I play in these workshops really help us, um, kind of feel that commitment even more than see it and know what it looks like and feels like for our specific team back to that whole, every team being different. So what it looks like and feels like for me might be a bit different than what it looks like and feels like for you. But we can use these games to find out, um, where our dogs are committing and increase that level of commitment, um, so that we can know where it happens and trust where it happens for our team. Um, I find that this is something that people often don't focus on until they're further along in their training. Um, many times they're already sequencing, but I think if you add it right at the beginning, it can really, it really helps your team and it can really help you to be more clear and more consistent and, and maintain that connection. What kind of problems might a team see, you know, if they haven't worked enough on commitment and what does that kind of look like? Is there anything that people maybe blame instead when the issue is actually, you've got a commitment problem? Commitment, lack of commitment can look really different depending on different teams.

So, um, some of the times that I see it show up, people are saying that, oh, my dog is way too fast for me. Um, and they perceive that they can't get where they need to be to run that particular dog. And with those types of teams, increased commitment can really help because the dogs can go out on that line and they can find their obstacle where their handler is moving in a different direction to get where they need to be. They don't have to run obstacle to obstacle. For other teams, it can look like a lack of confidence in the dog. Um, the dog isn't confident in their job to go all the way out to an obstacle. So that requires the handler running from obstacle to obstacle to get them around course. And these dogs can really benefit from learning and increasing their commitment level. It helps them know what their job is and it really increases their confidence in being able to do that job when, um, when the people can see it and trust it and trust that their dog can do it. Um, I think one of the areas on course that I see that commitment helps with that often people don't directly associate with commitment is how quickly the dog can come in on the new line. Um, when we have a high degree of obstacle commitment, that allows us to be so much more proactive with our cues. We can give our dogs the information about the new line so much sooner and then they're able to make their adjustments so much sooner and then they're able to come in on that new line so much sooner. Um, I think that's something that I don't think people realize correlates so much to commitment. I think it's easy to kind of think of commitment and responsiveness as almost opposite ends of a spectrum, right? So like you either have a dog that's got commitment or they're very responsive to the handler and they're paying too much attention almost. Um, first, is that true? Is that kind of how you see it? And then second, is it possible to kind of have a high degree of both? I think they're really connected to be honest. Um, I think that having commitment allows us to give that information so much sooner and our dogs having that information sooner allows them to react sooner and then therefore they can appear to be even more responsive. Um, so when you think about somebody giving you say directions from the passenger seat of a vehicle, um, do you want your co-pilot to tell you about the turn in the middle of the intersection or well before the intersection? And how does that look to the other people on the road? Um, if your co-pilot's telling you to turn in the intersection, you're probably going faster than you want.

Maybe your tires squeal when you turn. Um, you definitely haven't had a chance to turn on your signal. Um, and that turn looks like wide and really unpredictable to anybody else driving on the road. If your same co-pilot gave you that information proactively, you'd be able to do all the things you need to do. You could turn on your turn signal. You could tap your brakes. You, you might put both hands on the steering wheel, but you have this opportunity to make that same turn and much safer. And then therefore it's going to be much tighter, um, because you have that information. So what I think commitment does is it gives us the chance to be that co-pilot that gives that information proactively for our dogs so they can respond sooner and inevitably come into the new line sooner. I really like that. Um, that analogy, uh, in that vein, is it, is there such a thing as overtraining commitment? Absolutely. Um, I think it's so easy for us to get excited about things and overtrain them. Um, for me, one thing, um, that we need to think about is balance in our training. Uh, then that goes right back to that whole idea of planning. Um, I like planning to layer multiple skills in and then alternate them. Um, so that I'm not just drilling one thing. Um, I'm also a really big advocate for the whole less is more. Um, those really short training sessions are almost always the best. They're always the most productive. Anytime you let that training session go on for too long, it seems like everything starts to degrade. So going back to the workshop in particular, can you just tell us a little more about kind of what you'll cover and maybe who should consider signing up? Um, and is it kind of, are the exercises kind of specific to agility? Um, in the workshop, I'm going to go through games that go all the way from foundation skills, um, right up to testing more advanced skills that masters teams would be working on. Um, the foundation games are some of the first things that I teach in my foundation classes. Um, so you don't need to have a whole bunch of skills to start with this stuff. Um, the advanced skills are games that I find myself and my students to returning to time and time again, to keep those skills strong, um, to keep testing that commitment and knowing where it is. And I love these games because they don't require equipment. Um, and the skills translate really, really well. Um, I happen to live in a climate that gets snow. Um, so my equipment is all tucked away in a shed right now for the winter months. Um, so I, I try to find lots of games that don't specifically require equipment to work

on those skills that will directly relate to, um, agility. Uh, I do think that there's something for every level of team to play with in the workshop. Um, and I'd love to see teams from all different, um, skill levels. I think that's nice because then the people who have, um, less experience get to see what it looks like when you have more experience. And sometimes the more experienced teams see holes in their training when they see the less experienced teams working. Um, so I think there's benefit from everybody seeing all different levels. As for if it's specific to agility, um, I would say, no, I actually have teams that are utilizing these concepts for other purposes. Um, I think if you have a need for your dog to go out and do a job while you're either at a distance from them or moving away from them, that these games can be helpful for you. Awesome. And it sounded like, um, any skill levels fine. Is there, are there any age specific things that folks need to worry about? Or can they take it with a baby puppy? They can take it with a baby puppy. Um, especially if they're keep in the line with that whole less is more. Um, they're not big, huge drilling sessions. This is something that we're just playing a game, just a short little game session. And yeah, I think it's very appropriate for all ages. Even, um, I do this a lot with senior dogs. Just, it makes them feel like they have a job, but there's not really any impact on their body. Um, as long as you're doing these sessions really short. I like that. Um, any final thoughts or key points you maybe want to leave listeners with? Just remember to have fun. Um, it doesn't matter what you're training. Just figure out a way to make it fun for you and your dog. Um, those training sessions should be something that both of you are looking forward to. I like that. It's such an important thing to remember kind of as you embark on things, you know, leading towards competition. Thank you so much, Lori, for coming on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. And thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week with Julie Simons to talk about lost item recovery. If you haven't already subscribed to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice. To have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzie for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing provided by Chris Lang.

Thanks again for tuning in and happy training. Thank you.