Animals | Training | Body Language | Mindset
Train Your Animals in Three Simple Stages
Use animal logic rather than human logic and reach those training goals faster.
You need to show before you can ask. You need to be able to ask before you can tell. When you can tell, any need to enforce becomes moot.
That’s the training strategy I learned from a seasoned horse trainer who started his career in the make ’em or break ’em 1950s when using force was a common modus operandi. Then he apprenticed with a pro who was a “horse whisperer” before whispering was a thing. His thinking about horse training turned 180 degrees.
He developed a simple training system he used and taught to others successfully for over fifty years. I learned it as his ghostwriter (it’s called “marketing content creation” now). And I’ve applied it with positive results in communicating with all of the horses and dogs in my life.
Start by thinking like the animal you plan to train.
The horse trainer called his program “horse logical.” Horses are prey animals, anatomically built and mentally wired to watch for predators and flee at any sign of danger. They feel safe in a herd with a savvy leader to follow. You take those inclinations into account when you interact with them.
To train a dog, consider that they are predators. Wired to hunt, chase, and work in packs with a hierarchy that determines who gets to eat first. Or who controls the treats, as the case may be when a human gets involved.
Then plan your training strategy in three stages that build on one another.
1. SHOW before you ask.
For example, you want your dog to respond to the word “sit” by resting his hindquarters on the ground. How do you do that? One way is by luring the animal into a sitting position. You dangle a hot dog coin (or another delectible morsel) in front of the pup above nose level. Then you move the temptation toward pup’s tail.
Pup shifts weight onto bottom. Or not. Maybe this is pup’s first attempt. Try again. If the butt gets parked, the treat is delivered. The association of word > gesture > desired action > yummy treat underway.
But wait! Did you miss something? Pup is a dog and dogs fall into the predator category. A person standing in front of them and bending over them feels a little threatening.
After rinsing and repeating successfully multiple times, you try without a treat in hand. Dog sits. Morsel appears. Yum! Then rinse and repeat with morsels appearing at random. Or not at all.
But what do you do if you have a new pup (like mine) that just keeps staring at the treat and backing up whenever you move the treat? Try another method. Try to think like the dog.
Another way to connect the word “sit” with what you want is to catch the dog in the act. You notice the dog is about to sit, immediately say the word, then treat or praise or pet or whatever feels rewarding to your dog.
Age, temperament, personality, imprinting from life experiences, and other factors make every animal unique. You, too.
At the “show” stage you identify and explore one another’s strengths, motivations, quirks, and preferences to start working as a team.
2. ASK before you TELL.
When your critter responds reliably to whatever verbal or visual or body language cues you’ve associated with the behavior you want, you can start asking for that behavior without treats at hand.
Ask in new places. With distracting things going on nearby. At a distance. For longer periods of time. Without a treat in your hand. The variations are endless.
When you work on the behavior in new situations, you may have to go back to the very beginning steps if your animal gets distracted easily or shows signs of anxiety.
Your horse may walk quietly by every single distraction on his home turf. But what about the party balloons you need to walk by on your way to a trailhead?
You may nail a rapid recall in her own backyard. But what about at the dog park? Or when a squirrel starts making faces at her at the nature preserve?
Remember, there’s two-way communication going on. Are you asking in a way that’s always logical to the animal you’re working with? We use a lot of verbiage with dogs. But our body language is what animals pay more attention to.
The “asking” phase is where you build a consistently reliable set of behavior skills with your animal.
3. You can TELL once you’ve nailed the “ask.”
Can you ask for the behavior you want and expect to get it 95 percent of the time (is anyone perfect)?
Now you can run those agility courses with aplomb. Confidently head out from the barn on a trusting, spook-proof horse. Take your confident dog into public parks full of kids and bicycles.
The goal is to create a solid working relationship with your animal in a common “language” that’s clear to both of you.
Are we having fun yet? Yeah!
There are several great things about approaching training this way.
If the way you choose to show the animal what you want isn’t working, you’re not a failure. You just explore different approaches until you find what feels logical to the animal in front of you.
If you ask and don’t get what you want, you’re not a failure. Maybe the animal needs to be shown more than one way to understand the ask. Or more repetitions under different circumstances.
If you try to tell the dog or horse what to do and it doesn’t happen, you’re not a failure. You just go back to asking again in different ways and places until the behavior is a default habit to whatever cue you’ve associated it with.
There’s no need to escalate to the fourth level that the horse trainer mentioned.
Training this way eliminates any need to ENFORCE what you want.
Sixty or seventy years ago, animal training focused more on command and control rather than relationships. Who’s the boss? Who’s in charge? Who’s the leader. Attitudes and methods have changed dramatically since then for both animals and people.
Think of whatever behavior you would like to ask of an animal from the perspective of its species rather than from your human viewpoint.
People talk about being the leader of the pack, the herd. But what do YOU mean when you say leader? You’re in command? You’re the one calling all the shots?
Is that how you deal with your family and friends?
Or are you the leader because you’re the one everyone trusts or the one everyone fears? Are you the one that is always fair or are you the one who just wants their way?
To recap:
Show the animal what you want first. Break the process into a sequence of small pieces that are only tiny increments away from what the animal already understands. Make each step logical from the animal’s species and its instincts. Introduce the pieces one by one as each piece is mastered.
Ask over and over until the animal understands what behavior you want. Then ask over and over in all kinds of circumstances until you feel confident that you can depend on getting the response you want.
Now you can tell your animal what you want with confidence that your animal understands your request and will give you the behavior you want without fail.
Enjoy a rewarding relationship with the critters in your life that feels comfortable and logical from both sides of the conversation.
