Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:16 pm Post subject: How fast can you go and how do you learn patience?!
A plea from the heart! My worst attribute is that I'm horribly impatient and slighty obsessive when something catches my imagination. Like, I adore gardening but once I've planted some seeds, I want them to start growing NOW, and then I poke and prod them and try geeing them up and do them no good whatsoever (survival of the fittest in my garden!)
And I'm embarressed to admit that I'm a bit like that with dog training too I get bored with the ground work and want to get to the exciting bits as fast as possible and I KNOW that's such a wrong thing to do. For example, I've managed to completely miss the 'go back' command (day dreaming in class I expect!) So I get given loads of really good, solid advice on here about how to teach it. Off I go down the field with Zorro to have a nice, straight forward train of go-backs, but then once I've done a couple of nice dummy-throws behind Zorro, I can't help myself and have to throw a dummy either side of him too, and then start flapping my arms about giving him directions And then I see a nice bit of cover and something takes over me and I have to whallop a few dummies in there too - I'm like a crazed woman! I justify my actions to myself by saying that with Zorro at the age of nearly 8, and me at 45, we don't have the luxury of time to start slowly and I just rush, rush, rush! It's not good, is it?
So please....all you calm, sensible, thoughtful, patient, GOOD trainers - were you born like that, or have you had to train yourself first? Are you ever tempted to run before you've even learnt how to crawl? Do you ever have to give yourself a good slapping? Has anyone got any hidiously, awful stories of rushing at things and then falling flat on one's face that could be used as a caution to me?
Off I go down the field with Zorro to have a nice, straight forward train of go-backs, but then once I've done a couple of nice dummy-throws behind Zorro, I can't help myself and have to throw a dummy either side of him too, and then start flapping my arms about giving him directions Embarassed And then I see a nice bit of cover and something takes over me and I have to whallop a few dummies in there too - I'm like a crazed woman!
I'm exactly the same Becs....Why do you think I stuck with Agility? I don't do "Slowly, Slowly, Catchy Monkey" .. I'm more "I want to do it and do it NOW".
I will watch this thread with interest as I'm also guilty of jumping on.
I'm sure it's easier Becs if you start at the beginning with a pup though. With an older dog they need stretching and sessions need to keep their interest.
With a pup a few sit, stops and heelwork and their thrilled to bits generally.
All the books are very clear not to move on until you've got each bit spot on - but it's very hard in practice.
actually thinking on this seriously, what about planning your sessions? making a note of what you're going to work on specifically and then sticking to it, might stop you getting enticed by a nice bit of cover.
Just a few notes even like, steadiness exercises, heelwork around dummies, marked retrieves stretching towards 100m, 'back' using tracks.
Might stop you adding in blinds, directions etc. or even following the exercises in the gundog club manual?
It is one of the hardest things that I find about all the lovely newbie people on the forum getting out there gundog training. I see them posting that they have decided to do gundog training then two days later they are talking about doing blinds etc. and I hold my head in my hands in complete horror .
I work my dogs slowly and thoroughly through the basics (and yes it can be blinkin boring, although I try to think of new things to put in the mix). There really are no short cuts to getting your heelwork, sits, stays, recall and STEADINESS in place before you go rushing off doing anything else.
With an older dog it probably does not matter because you are never going to set the competition world alight, but with a pup you just cannot run before you can walk or you will pay the price and as I posted on another thread recently one big mistake that your pup "gets away with" can take a flippin long time to iron out.
Every time I start a new training course up I find myself saying, as one of the first things, the following:
"There are no quick fix's, no easy, peasy solutions, no shotcuts" and then they all look miserable but then I carry on saying that:
"It's not very complicated - there are only very few commands: stop whistle, recall whistle, 'left', 'right', 'back' and if they like the 'hunt' whistle - THAT'S IT".
You must never, ever skip the boring stuff as it will come back and give you nightmares forever! mistakes teaches you patience - I was in a hurry once and pushed a very promising dog on but ended up with a dog that got completely obsessed about retrieving and started to make a noise so that was my trial hope gone
Another thing that makes you feel good about boring, basic training is when you go on a shoot and see dogs that runs amok and create mayhem while your dogs are just sitting there, ready but under control. It is in those situations that you get people coming up to you to tell you how lovely your dog/dogs are and how well they work yet they are only doing what they are meant to do. It doesn't take much to impress people sometimes - just a bit of basic, boring training
Natasha
____________
WLF All the Way!!!!
"Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you canīt eat it or hump it. **** on it and walk away..."
I totally agree. I too went through a spell of wanting it quickly and threw everything away,when I ruined a really good dog. He was fast and hard and so obsessed with retrieving, my fault entirely. So obsessed that when it mattered at a really big important trial - he ran in. Ran in big time. It was another dogs bird and he was back with the bird before the other dog had even got halfway there.
I now say the basics are the foundations of a wall. If they ain't solid, the wall falls down. Take your time, make sure each bit is perfected before you move on to something new.
How I got over the rushing thing was to set out my training session. 1st go over what we did last time, 2nd try something new and last go back to what we can do really well. If I felt like pushing it, then I always back down and go home.
It helps having more than one dog, then you are not focusing on the one all the time, breaks up the boredom of basics.
You are fortunate, Becs, in that you have an older dog, had you a puppy, it all may have gone horribly wrong.
I am also guilty of rushing my dogs with training its a case of right you can go left 50 yards now lets do 150
A recent case of this is with Sampson. I send him out on a retrieve and he does it well, so I do it again and again and again and again. Then he starts spitting the dummy because he wants to go on the next retreive. I start getting frustrated as I know he can old and present well so I keep going trying to get him to hold but instead of just giving it to him and walking away I use retreives.
I explain to Steve (trainer) that hes keen and going out fast and coming back fast but spitting the dummy and how I tried to correct it. When steve see's Samps he goes at snail pace for the dummy not really interested and comes back at a trot and spits. So now have had to spend the last 2-3 weeks letting Samps have one retrieve and just giving him the Dummy and walking round with it . Yes he is getting better and not spitting but its taken ages to correct something that was caused by getting ahead of myself then getting frustrated and boring the dog with overdoing training . When he could do it in the first place.
Its great when you see your dog improving and of course you want to jump to the next stage and you see other dogs the same age or younger doing more advanced things and you want your dog to be the same but from experiance, its not worth it as you can easily set the dog back in his training.
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I get bored with the ground work and want to get to the exciting bits as fast as possible and I KNOW that's such a wrong thing to do. For example, I've managed to completely miss the 'go back' command (day dreaming in class I expect!) So I get given loads of really good, solid advice on here about how to teach it. Off I go down the field with Zorro to have a nice, straight forward train of go-backs, but then once I've done a couple of nice dummy-throws behind Zorro, I can't help myself and have to throw a dummy either side of him too, and then start flapping my arms about giving him directions 
I justify my actions to myself by saying that with Zorro at the age of nearly 8, and me at 45, we don't have the luxury of time to start slowly and I just rush, rush, rush! It's not good, is it?
