Maximizing the Potential of Your Retriever
BY PAT NOLAN

Our hunting retrievers are wonderful creatures. Talented and versatile, they excel at obedience, agility, and field events. They are sought after as search and rescue dogs, service dogs for the physically challenged, and as drug and bomb detectors. But talent and versatility are only the beginning. To get the most from these extraordinary animals, we need dogs that are highly motivated and enthusiastic partners in the training process.

Selective breeding has endowed the retrievers with physical and mental attributes that uniquely suit them to a wide variety of tasks. While genetic make-up sets boundaries for these attributes, environment and experience influence the capacity of the dog to meet its potential and achieve success within these boundaries.

Calvin Coolidge spoke eloquently on the critical role perseverance plays in success. (see inset). As it turns out, he could have been writing a treatise on dogs! Just like people, no matter how talented, if dogs aren’t motivated to succeed in training, they will never reach their maximum potential.

Most hunting retrievers have deep-seated retrieving drive. Developed properly, this drive is a strong motivator for work. However, some dogs enjoy the work but don’t like to train. In addition to building the desire to retrieve, what can we do to ensure that our dogs are persistent and determined in training?

Why do some dogs eagerly anticipate training and love to work while others are reluctant students? What can we do to develop the best training attitude possible in our dogs?

Researchers in the 60’s accidentally discovered they could create in dogs a condition very similar to depression. They named this “learned helplessness.” Once they identified the causes of learned helplessness, they understood how to avoid it. This is why their research is important to us.

 In a study on behavior and learning in dogs, researchers reversed the normal order of training and applied correction before teaching the animals how to escape or avoid that correction. Subjected to these “random” corrections, the dogs learned they could neither predict nor avoid them, so they quit trying.

When random correction occurred early in a dog’s training, it had profound negative effects on the dog and interfered with all subsequent training. The dogs didn’t like training. It took them longer to learn new skills. They didn’t perform as well on cognitive tests. They were harder to train, requiring more correction. The dogs had an overall depressed emotional state.

  Interestingly, the researchers found it was not the level or number of corrections that created this, but rather their random application. The same corrections, applied properly, created dogs that were willing, motivated, and hard working.

Because we can apply pressure to keep the dog moving through the negative effects of random correction, we don’t often see dogs that truly quit. Instead, we see dogs that are going through the motions but are not applying themselves. With this depressed learning attitude, a dog is never able to realize his full potential. 

Now that we understand what learned helplessness is and how it is produced, what are the most common forms of random corrections, and how can we avoid them?

1.   Correction without proper prior instruction 

If you fail to provide enough consistent repetition for a dog to pair a desired behavior with a new command, he cannot know what to do to escape or avoid a correction. For example, if a dog’s only experience with the “sit” command is being placed twice before you correct, he can’t know what you want when he hears “sit” because he hasn’t truly learned the exercise.

Be consistent in your actions and commands. It takes many repetitions for the dog to learn new behaviors. When teaching new commands, look for indications that he knows what the command means. In the “sit” example, when you see he is regularly melting into the sit position before you can place him, you can conclude he knows what the command means and that it is reasonable to correct for disobedience. 

2.   Failure to correct for disobedience to known commands 

If your dog knows what to do and refuses and you don’t correct him, he quits trying. Let’s look to early field work for an example. Having recently force-fetched your dog you head off to work on marking. Your dog returns from a retrieve and does not keep the bumper in his mouth as taught but spits it out at your feet. You correct him and get delivery to hand. The next training session he again spits out the bumper at your feet. Only now, you are in a group training session. You feel uncomfortable about “wasting” group time, so rather than correct the dog to get delivery to hand, you pick up the bumper and call for the next mark. Here, the same action by the dog brought correction one time but not the next, which means you are actually rewarding the dog for failure to deliver to hand. This creates great uncertainty in the dog. The result of this confusion is a dog that is not sure how to avoid this correction.  

3.   Correction before the dog hears a command 

If correction or force occurs before the dog hears a command he can’t possibly  avoid it. This can be as simple as poorly timed leash corrections. Make sure you give a command before correcting. In collar conditioning the command must come before e-collar stimulation.

Make sure your dog can physically hear your commands. A dog working in the field at great distances might not hear a whistle if the wind changes or if he is in running water. Keep in mind sound travels slower than radio waves. At a distance, it takes a moment for the sound of the whistle to reach him. If you blow the whistle and push the button on an e-collar at the same time, the collar corrects before the sound of the whistle gets to the dog.    

4.   Correction for errors, rather than for disobedience       

You will also create training problems for your dog if you correct him for making an honest mistake. For example, on a set of multiple marks, a dog is sent for a memory bird. Having forgotten the throw, the dog goes to the wrong side of the gun and hunts. The handler, however, remembers where the bird is and corrects the dog for “going behind the gun.” The act of forgetting is a mistake, not disobedience. Because it is not possible for the dog to avoid making mistakes, he cannot avoid this correction in the future.

Before correcting, be certain the dog is disobeying. In this example, one alternate plan of action would be to handle him to the correct side of the gun. If he then insists on going to the wrong side, you will know he is disobeying, not lost. 

The individual dogs and the tasks we train them for vary greatly. Consequently, there is no one “best” training method for all dogs. However, all “best” methods adhere to three common principles: fairness, continuity, and consistency. We ignore these principles at our peril, as they are integral to the creation of conditions that motivate dogs to succeed and avoid learned helplessness.

Fairness — Correcting without proper prior instruction is inherently unfair and destructive to the dog/trainer relationship and to the dog’s momentum.

Continuity — Each training session must build on previous lessons and prepare for future ones. If not, the dog is often left guessing.

Consistency — Standards must be clear and understandable. When you change them, do so gradually, not abruptly or haphazardly.  

If you follow these principles in choosing and using training methods, you will avoid random corrections. Your dog will enjoy training more, and you will enjoy the success that comes from training a more highly motivated dog. With a highly motivated and willing training partner, you can maximize his potential in any endeavor.  

This article is based on research done by Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D., and others. You can read more about the extensive research done on Learned Helplessness at http://www.positivepsychology.org/index.htm.  

Training Tip:

Many times in hunting and in trials we need to run a blind retrieve past the scent of shorter falls. Judges frequently simulate this in hunt tests and trials by plucking feathers and heavily scenting an area on the way to a blind. This presents a dilemma in training. We don’t want to teach the dog not to use or honor his nose, in fact, the ability to smell and find hidden game is to be encouraged. However, advanced dogs must cast out of these scented areas.

Before correcting for cast refusals at this point, you need to provide plenty of experience to show the dog that these artificially scented areas never contain birds. They are, instead, signs that he is on the right path.

To start, pluck feathers and drag birds to scent an area directly in front of the line in training. Run blinds for a week through this. After this exposure, begin to move the areas out, about thirty yards at a time. Your dog will understand in time with very little correction that he must cast on to find birds --  they are not in the scented areas.