Practice
Makes Perfect
Show Training
and Dreadlock
Barbara J. Andrews /
©
TheDogPlace
February 2006 -
Everyone has had a
puppy or young dog "freeze" during training, especially at a dog show!
But most often it happens when training begins and the puppy's brain and
sensory receptors go on overload. If you understand what happens
and how to prevent it, you can be the world's greatest trainer!
People will marvel at your training skill when in fact, it is your
understanding of basic physiology and how a dog "thinks" and how even
his muscles and reflexes learn.
A pitcher's arm knows
exactly how to wind up and deliver the ball without conscious thought.
The eyes, brain, muscles, ligaments, and nerve endings carry out a
memorized sequence that sends the ball across the plate. Perfect
synchronization can be affected by stress, fatigue, or other external
factors but when cellular memory works, a miracle occurs and a strike is
delivered.
That's why practice
makes perfect. The muscles actually have their own memory and can
perform repetitive motion with very little input from the conscious
brain. Your eye, brain, arms, leg, and control-foot know just how to
slow the car and make a left turn without conscious direction from your
brain.
A puppy that has been
repeatedly and correctly trained to gait, bait, self-stack is a puppy
whose little legs can carry on even when his brain is saturated with
stressful input. In fact, a mentally conditioned youngster is actually
comforted by performing what he knows brings praise and
reassurance.
Conversely, when
something unfamiliar interferes with the brain's ability to recall and
transmit information, signals to the rest of the body are interrupted.
If the brain suddenly becomes inefficient in processing data, Puppy
freezes. If the brain remains "stumped" it rejects the situation and
Puppy withdraws, appearing to sulk. Remember this term. Dreadlock.
When an owner becomes annoyed and rebukes a puppy in this state of mind,
it causes even more withdrawal.
Make no mistake at
this point!!! DO NOT PRAISE HIM in order to coax him into recovering
his ability to walk on a lead. Reinforcement of such behavior may
cause the brain to catalog it as a solution when faced with future
over-stimulation. There is a tenuous line between reassurance
and praise. To properly cope with such a delicate and often unexpected
problem, you must understand the mechanics involved.
Imagine answering a
knock at your door and being confronted by a Martian. Your cognitive
process is startled and may shut down. Similarly, your pup can be so
overwhelmed by that first dog show that his nervous system goes into
what I call "Dreadlock." The brain is receiving overwhelming sensory
input and like a little computer, it races to attach those signals to
memory cells. Finding "no matches" it rejects "dog show" just as your
brain would refuse to deal with the green space man. Given a few
seconds to search memory cells, the human subconscious might say "ah ha,
this looks like something I've seen on TV" and it begins to transmit
that data to the conscious brain. Depending on your past experience
and stored perceptions, you will either invite the creature
in for tea - or run like hell!
So think about it. If
your dog's memory cells fail when he gets that first glimpse of a "dog
show" he's likely to have the same reaction you would have upon being
dropped in the middle of a frenetic sporting event on Mars. Since
neither of you can run away but adrenaline is being pumped into the
body, either earth-animal may go into a shocky shut-down. Dreadlock.
To carry on with this
stupid analogy since I seem stuck with it now, if assured that this is a
wonderful place to be and that all those creatures are really having
fun, the sensory devices report to the brain that all is ok. It will
then allow the body (heart rate, respiration, adrenaline levels, etc) to
return to normal. That isn't to say the legs will work just right or
that you will have Puppy's full attention in the ring, but he'll be
firing on six cylinders instead of two.
If however, the
initial experience was really bad, you've seen pups being dragged,
choking, around the grounds, the brain may behave the same way as when
we experience a traumatic situation. Injured in an accident, you are
unlikely to remember details because your brain thoughtfully protects
you from the details but anything that subconsciously suggests a similar
impending situation is enough to make you nervous and apprehensive.
Ok, you've got it. If
that first show is recorded as a torturous experience, a long weekend of
confinement, rumbling gut, full bladder, and reprimands, well, now you
understand why a promising youngster becomes hopelessly turned off on
shows.
On the other hand, if
Puppy's memory cells link shows with pleasant associations of people
laughing, attention, petting, and happy anticipation, the experience
becomes imbedded programming.
So make sure Puppy
gets to explore the show grounds the night before or early in the
morning before there are too many people and too much tension so that he
can absorb the scary surroundings but escape unscathed. The next
scouting trip will be even easier because it's a happy walk that ends
with a calm stroll back to the security of his crate. The wise trainer
will take him back and forth repeatedly, using bait and praise after
the pup is comfortable. During relaxed, fun trips to ringside,
Puppy's brain imprints layer upon layer of pleasant data which will
reassure him when he's rushed to the same ringside by a nervous handler.
Repetition.
Practice. Conditioning the brain so that it passes correct messages to
the body. Only then can Puppy begin to automatically
shift weight, straighten a leg, and assume the show pose you've spent
hours teaching him. If he's bunched up tight, adrenaline pumping, the
brain having signaled muscles into the flight mode, then he sure can't
extend the legs into that effortless gait that makes you proud. Of
course he'll refuse bait. He can't eat when he may have to flee at any
minute!
Now you understand.
Isn't it amazing that in spite of all that's going on, he looks up at
you and manages to wag his tail? If your car had so many things
malfunctioning at once, the engine would quit. Your puppy's system may
be misfiring but if he's been practiced by an owner who understands the
Practice Makes Perfect method, he'll keep firing on all cylinders and
having fun doing it!
Aren't dogs wonderful?
http://www.thedogplace.org/ShowDog/PracticePerfect-Dreadlock_Andrews-0602.asp
reprinted with permission
February 2006
