Clean Run Magazine - June 2007 - 42

Backyard Champions By Deborah Jones, Ph.D. Does your dog perform like a champion in the backyard but fall apart at trials? Do you wonder why your dog seems ready to show until you get there? Do you sometimes feel like your dog has a “split personality”? Have you ever worried that people will think you don’t train your dog at all based on his performance, even though you have spent hours practicing? Have you ever said, “But he does it perfectly in training”? to identify the ways in which the learning environment and the performance environment are different, and then find ways to incorporate the differences in your practice sessions. Training to Your Weaknesses People are often fairly thoughtless about their agility training sessions. They set up a sequence or a course and run it a few times without giving much consideration to the specific skills they need to work on. Or, they practice skills that are fun and easy for them and their dogs, rather than setting up more challenging work. This is called training to your strengths. While it is more immediately reinforcing, it will not increase your or your dog’s skill levels. Working on your weaknesses is not quite as much fun. While it may be more difficult or frustrating in the short term, it will pay off in long-term benefits. This is not to say that you should always work on increasingly difficult skills and exercises. Instead, plan your training sessions so that sequences and exercises span the range of difficulty. After working on a particularly difficult skill (such as angled weave entries), do a couple of fun and easy sequences (such as fast jump/tunnel combinations). Then go back to working on the more difficult skill again. If things only get harder and harder, your dog may give up. But if you intersperse fun and easy skills with the more difficult ones, your dog will be ready to face the challenges. The Learning/Performance Distinction The main problem is what behaviorists call the learning/ performance distinction. There are several logical reasons for this phenomenon. The really good news is that there are many things you can do to change it. But first, it helps to understand the problem. Researchers know that there is often a difference between what you know (learning) and what you show (performance). This difference has been observed repeatedly in studies with many different species. In fact, my college students often tell me that their test grades don’t accurately reflect their knowledge of the material. Now some may be exaggerating just a bit, but others are probably correct. This is just another instance of the learning/ performance distinction. There are a wide variety of reasons why performance doesn’t match learning. For example, stress, anxiety, distraction, physical illness, environmental conditions, such as heat or cold, and many others can influence performance. Your job as a trainer is 42 Clean Run | June 07

Clean Run Magazine - June 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - June 2007