By Rita Argiros, Ph. D.
That piece of wisdom comes from Kyle Warren, my search and rescue team mate and a terrific dog trainer. I have come to see the wisdom in that idea. Many search and rescue dog handlers spend all their training time in the woods practicing searching. We spend very little time on formal obedience training. What’s the point? We don’t need our dogs to sit in one place for 10 minutes while we disappear when we are on a real search? On a real search we will be with our dogs, walking in the woods. As long as our dogs are under our control in that setting, why do we need to waste our time practicing something that we are, most likely never going to need? Sure, we need a little obedience. Our dogs should have good manners and we don’t want them to embarrass us when we are in public, running around wildly, not listening to us. On and on the justifications go.
Cut to a normal day at The Family Foundation School and listen to this typical statement by a student.
“I don’t like all the rules at the school. I don’t hold people accountable lots of time to the little things because I don’t feel that they have anything to do with the real world. Nobody is going to time my shower when I get out of here and people aren’t going to care if I am wearing eyeliner. The rules are stupid. I need to focus on the program—sure—go to meetings, get a sponsor. I plan to do that. I like outside AA. But none of these Family School Rules are part of the real AA program. Sure, I want to stay sober, stop being violent, succeed in school, get along with my family, recover from my eating disorder, etc., I don’t ever want to hurt my family again, or get arrested again, or feel remorseful because of my behavior but…
Back to dog training…
The sit isn’t only about the sit. It’s about control. The dog’s self control and, your ability to control the dog. Obedience training starts out in an artificial environment with no distractions. Just being still is hard for many dogs at first. Little by little the dog is tempted with distractions. We throw a ball in front of the dog. We have another dog walk by her. Even something as simple as changing our position and turning slightly away from the dog may be enough to get the dog to break the sit. We correct them and put them back into position. It may take two or three repetitions but soon the dog learns to maintain the position in the face of the distraction. Now I have no way of knowing for sure what is going on in the dog’s brain. I can only tell you what it looks like in human terms. Over time, as the dog settles in and learns to keep in her position she looks happy, alert, focused and most-of-all, confident. I think self-control must feel good to dogs. When you get back into the woods, your relationship with the dog is greatly improved. She is focused on her work, less distracted by falling leaves, squirrels, rabbits and swimming holes. If she does get pulled away into a distraction that is simply irresistible — instead of tuning you out—now her self-control is such that you can call her. Your voice penetrates the emotional fog of excitement and she get’s back to work. All because you worked on that sit-stay outside of the context of the search.
Kids are not dogs…
Our teens will be making these decisions themselves for the most part, they need to internalize the trainer. What we are trying to do is build up the ability of the decision making parts of their brains to over-ride the more impulsive and emotional parts of their brains. Sure our rules don’t apply in other settings. It doesn’t matter. My dog rarely has to sit when she is out looking for lost people. However, the decision to eat a food they don’t much care for, builds self control. Following the 5 minute shower rule even though they really don’t want to does the same thing.
