Clean Run - April 2017 - 32

ating here an article worthy of a peerreviewed journal; rather, I am interested
in telling you a story.
Why do we like stories? We are stories.
Possibly. Probably. This viewpoint depends on your history with the world,
the vast amount of events that occurred
in your life up to this point. The events,
both big and small, that have shaped
you into who you are. It just so happens
that I, like a large portion of the human
population, have been reinforced over
time for a good story, and tend to interpret life events as such.
A story is a lens. I can explore the world
in countless ways, but when I explore it
through a story I am able to naturally
reward any listeners (be them a broad
audience or an audience of one: myself)
through a series of behavior chains. A
series of individual responses or events,
when connected, create a behavior
chain. Any narrative we construct for

ourselves in the world is made up of a
chain. For example, preparing for an
exam involves a series of events that
take place in a specific order (to depict
briefly: placing notebook and pen on a
table, sitting down, reading, highlighting, pulling an all-nighter, and so on).
Another example is the journey one
takes to reach a specific agility goal.
Steps involved here can be just as small,
but also may be painted in broader
strokes: studying a world championship
judge's courses in preparation for a tryout, following a conditioning program,
eating healthy foods, participating in
high-pressure competition scenarios,
and so on.
Each step within a behavior chain serves
two purposes: 1) as a signal for the next
step to take place and 2) as a reinforcer
for the previous step (making it more
likely for that step to occur again in the
future). As an effect of this, our stories

continue; new pieces are born from
the old and reinforced by the new. We
dream, we act, we pine, we meditate,
and we live our tales, from one link of
the chain to the next.
As dog trainers and dog agility instructors, we are interested in canine behavior and owner behavior. But put another
way, we are interested in a team's story.
It is our aim to communicate with both
dogs and their owners, so understanding why these two populations do the
things they do is important. Yet it is not
just the interaction of the owner with
the dog that we should be interested in.
Dog agility is a sport and as such it is
made up of competitors. When it comes
to molding and shaping a competitor,
coaches and trainers must look beyond
front cross execution and reward placement; we must analyze the whole person, the whole dog, the whole story, as
best we can. D

Tori Self is an avid dog lover, writer, agility coach, wannabe chef, and explorer. She started competing in agility at 12 years of age and has since earned national and
international success alongside her Border Collie, Revolution. Tori currently trains and ventures with Rev and her young Border Collie, Brave, narrating their journeys
on her blog at www.toriself.com.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - April 2017