Author: Justine

This was a common phrase when I worked with animal trainer Bob Bailey and I have never forgotten the importance of WHAT and HOW you reinforce a behaviour, and how it translates into your dog training.  Reinforcement is such an incredible tool if utilized well, but so often I think it is overlooked or misunderstood in the agility world.  When I am teaching I often ask students “what are you looking to reinforce?” or “what did you reinforce? & why did you reinforce in that way?”.  This helps bring some awareness to the how and the why instead of just tossing a toy or pulling out a cookie from your pocket. 

Your dog is ALWAYS learning, and every time you give them attention, whether its a cue, praise, a toy, food, freedom etc., you are strengthening the behaviour they are performing at said time.  The more you become aware of the what and the how of all the reinforcement you utilize, the clearer and more efficient your training becomes, making it much easier for the dog to comprehend.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemy in training, thinking we are reinforcing one thing but ultimately reinforcing something completely opposite just with the way we deliver the reward. 
The first step is knowing the dog you have, in the environment you’re working in and having a really clear idea of what behaviours you are hoping to build.  A huge part of foundation training is simply building up the different rewards you can utilize in training, building boundaries and control around those rewards so that you can use them as effectively as possible.  If your dog cannot ignore the food, or a toy it is going to make using that reward much more challenging.  If your dog does not bring the toy back easily, then you end up never using it, or placing the reward in the appropriate place.  If your dog does not learn to play, it is much harder to reward at a distance, and if your dog does not value food it’s harder to reinforce control positions.
When dogs are learning agility skills I often place rewards to help build commitment, then as I fade those placed rewards I use more tossing of food or toy to still create strong commitment and distance to cues that require them to ignore my motion or position.  When your dog begins to sequence and you are no longer working to reinforce one specific skill, it can often be harder to know when, where and how to reinforce your dog in agility. 
It drives me crazy when a dog and handler finish a sequence and the dog just grabs the toy out of the handlers hand, or maybe they toss it across the field to reward the sequence.  Every reward you give your dogs (especially the high value toys and food) can be used to build better behaviour, so I hate to just give the reinforcement away after a drill is done.  Changing your habits to utilize your reinforcement can really help strengthen your dogs behaviours for the better.  It is a great habit to end your training sequences on a specific skill you need to strength like a tight turn, a hard verbal discrimination, good contact performance or even a newer verbal skill.  For the dogs who need more distance and commitment, tossing or placing the toy on their line or for the dogs who like to work away too much you can reinforce them for coming in close. 
When your dogs are older and have good skills I find it really helps to think about HOW you reinforce in a training drill.  If you have a dog who needs more OOMPH then working on chasing the toy or food from your hand or racing them to the reward will help build the speed and drive.  If you have a dog who has plenty of oomph but struggles to keep their mind in higher arousal then you want to reinforce them in a way that requires self control, thinking, staying calm and regulated. 
For my own dogs, I am always working to reinforce more thinking and listening, they have plenty of drive and speed so I would never reinforce them for chasing me for the tug or letting them race thoughtlessly to the reinforcement.  I need my dogs to be very aware of my movement, always listening to my cues and I really really want them to be respectful of their bodies so I tend to reinforce them in a way that very easily creates those behaviours.  This makes your training sooo much more efficient because you’re working on reinforcing so many different things all at once.  There is no point for rewarding a really good effort of self control by having them race to the toy or chase you down, they have enough natural value for all of those things so its much more effective to reinforce control in a way that continues to build control. 
Training some of these reinforcement cues and tools so your dog knows how to be reinforced in the ways and locations you want them to be will really help bring your dog training to the next level.  It is amazing how so many unwanted behaviours in agility stem from a lack of self control – off courses, bars, weave entries and exits – if your dog is always in a hurry and not able to remain in a regulated state of mind then those things will always be a challenge as they rush and rush on to the next thing.  If HOW you reinforce your dog leads them further and further from being in their own minds then your training sessions will never be efficient. 
Remember that you have to be conscious of the dog that you have in the environment you put them in, be aware of what they need and plan your reinforcers accordingly.  Think before you train – “what am I looking to reinforce?” And “how can I best create the behaviours I want with the reinforcement I have?”.  Sometimes this means going back to foundations to establish more tools and more ways of reinforcing the behaviours we want to see on course.  Push yourself to think more about every reward you deliver both on and off the agility field, build awareness around how those rewards effect behaviour, and remember, your dog is always learning 🙂

Here is some examples how I like to reinforce my experienced dogs in training, have fun!

I think one thing that really sets a great dog trainer apart from the rest is the ability to search for failures and weakness and really understand and learn from them.  I have always viewed failures in dog training as a positive, I believe theres so much power in knowing what you don’t know or what your dog doesn’t know, this is the only way you can learn to turn that weakness into a strength.  When I train my dogs I always make notes in my phone of any exercise they struggle with and then I will try to make a plan to build that understanding and growing their confidence.  For my really experienced dogs I am always excited to discover failure since it gives me the power to really strengthen their understanding and their abilities. 
This is very different than setting your dog up for failure, I want my dogs to be confident and trust me and really feel like a “team” so I am always reminding myself to respect their capacity.  Their capacity is merely a reflection of the tools I have given them and it’s my responsibility to continually grow that capacity.  Whether its their ability to stay in a healthy regulated state, their ability to understand cues and criteria, their ability to be physically strong and sound to do the tasks that I ask of them, even their ability to be focussed and in the right state of mind.  Respecting capacity means not asking more than your dog is capable of giving, working to grow that capacity with many layers of understanding, reinforcement and positive experience. Every dog comes with its own set of strengths and weakness and it really is our job as a trainer to set them up for success and be able to look at failures in training from a non critical lens but rather a place of curiosity and learning.  “How can I help my dog understand this better?” Or “How can I make this easier for my dog to cope in this environment?” Or even “What am I doing to create this issue?”.  Your dog is doing the best they can with the tools you have given them.
This way of thinking has really helped me to come up with new and better ways of training to make the learning faster and easier for the dog (and the people!).  It’s the driving force and my motivation to be a better dog trainer and teacher.  Failure is information and it is power if we utilize it well.
A realization I have come to in the past year is that although this has been my mentality around dog training for a very long time somehow I have not always applied this to so many other areas of my life.  I hate failing, I hate letting people down, I hate looking at the things I struggle with as a human, all I want is to be competent and when Im not I have a lot of negative emotions around it. 
The last year has been a very hard one for me. filled with a lot of failure; a failed marriage, failed friendships, feeling like a failure as a mother and even failing to show up as a teacher at times.   I think that everyone on this earth will go through some tough times, they will suffer and they will fail and it’s very easy to go down a dark road of shame and despair.  The most important thing I have come to realize is that – it is our biggest failures that lead us on the most important journeys. Just as with dog training, knowing what you don’t know and respecting your own capacity is so valuable.  We are all doing the best we can with the tools we were given, the tools our parents gave us, our peers and our teachers.  Realizing how valuable it is to learn and to grow your own capacity to become closer and closer to the best version of yourself has really been worth all the struggle.  It has led me down a road of self awareness and discovery, healing and forgiveness.
I wish this world placed more value on mental health, on connection, on love and understanding, teaching people how to have peace and love even with differing opinions.
In the past year I have had a handful of loved ones and influences in my life that helped me to move forward and grow, to inspire me in the darker days and my hope is to pay that forward with this blog.  Inspiration, motivaltion and learning around all things dog training, teaching and life.
I will never forget the dogs who I have failed and the people I have let down, those are my constant reminder to be better, to do better and to continue to grow my capacity as a trainer, a teacher, a partner and a human being. 
SO lets start to look at failure in a different light, be able to look at our dogs, ourselves, our relationships from a place of learning and understanding and instead of our failures creating shame, lets let them open new doors to growth, love and learning.  Understanding over judgment, curiosity over criticism, connection over compliance.  If you are struggling just know that your not alone and that your failures, if you look at them from just the right angle, they can be the catalyst to change, to growth, to learning, to peace and understanding.  

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know
nothing about.” – Wendy Mass