Training Muse: Quit While You're Ahead

I'm wondering why it is so hard, for almost all of us, to quit while we are ahead?  We work hard to get a behavior and, finally, ZING the dog "gets it".  Do we stop, call all our training buddies and brag, post it on Facebook(tm), take someone special out to dinner and revel in how proud we are?  Well, I suppose some do.  Most of us, instead, ask the dog to give us the behavior again.  And maybe again.

If you use "Shaping" or "Successive Approximation", as many of us do, asking for the behavior again can be very confusing to our dogs.  It's almost like we are saying "that was great, close, but try again".  And sometimes, that's exactly what happens.  The dog tries giving us something else.  We don't respond, the dog tries a third thing, we don't respond and the dog just keeps throwing behavior at us.  If we're lucky, the dog will cycle around to the behavior we want.  If not, we get a frustrated dog and frustrated trainer.

I think I'm going to work hard on quitting while I'm ahead.   Jackpot that new behavior and STOP.  Let the dog think about what occurred.  Pick up the training later.

So, if you get a call from me bragging about my dog's new behavior, have patience with me.  And remember you are saving my dog from being nagged about doing the behavior again.  My dogs say thanks!