My best friend says about me, "you don't suffer fools well..." I would add that I don't suffer foolish behaviour well either. I am a straight shooter, I'm quick to make a decision and I'm quick to respond if I think a decision needs to be made. Indecisive behaviour makes me crazy.
True personalities tend to come out in a person when they are training or working with an animal. As a running partner, there's not much that Stetson has to "get" other than move forward, don't pull and don't act a fool toward other dogs. Building teamwork hasn't been a mental stretch for either of us with regard to running. Obedience and Agility is another story all together. My intentions are not casual. I expect to earn titles in both venues, and intend to do so to the best of both of our abilities. This expectation and goal requires me to step back and evaluate myself as a trainer/handler as well and my dog. I'm not too good at looking objectively at things, because well, normally I'm too busy handling them to think about it.
At obedience work, Stetson is at the place in his training that he is "offering behaviours" to me when he doesn't understand what is being asked of him. This is a good problem to have. It means I have a dog that is interested in working, interested in being "right" according to my standard and strong minded enough to try "tricks" until I hopefully reward something. The first problem with this is that I lose my patience if I don't get the "right", (again, according to me), response. I typically don't spend enough time letting him figure something out before I "lure" him with food. I never had a dog that offered what they thought I wanted them to do, so I'm learning that I have to be patient (new word for me) and give him a bit of time before I step in and redirect him. My obedience instructor is working with me to get me to "slow down" and give him an opportunity to give me the right behavior.
Tonight during agility class, these lessons I'm being taught about slowing down paid off while he learned the difference between the teeter plank (which tips and bangs loudly) vs. the dogwalk plank (which doesn't tip and is three times as long). When we began reviewing the teeter with Stetson tonight, he left the entrance (down side) and popped up on the end of the teeter causing it to crash to the ground. Creating that kind of noise is normally scary to a green dog, but he is smart and anxious to get the food reward at the end, so he repeated this behaviour several times and when he began to take the teeter correctly, he popped off before it tipped and walked over to slap it to the ground. I didn't get frustrated with him tonight. The instructor was pleased with his interest in smacking it down (knowing that he really can be worried about noises and new experiences) and somehow I knew that he wasn't trying to avoid, he was trying to cut to the chase and figure out how to get his reward. It didn't take very long and we were able to get him going over the teeter, beginning to end...and the results on the dogwalk were even more exciting and faster.
I knew I could teach a four year old dog many, many new tricks; but I'm thrilled that this fifty year old woman is learning too. I have always heard "patience is a virtue". Perhaps I'll be known as patient someday.
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