Top Dogs: The Importance of Winning

Many years ago I stumbled upon a very funny website that sold de-motivational posters.  Obviously this was a parody on those motivational posters that one often finds on the walls of some corporate workplace.  The posters feature a photo of some inspiring scene and motivational word underscored by a clever saying meant to inspire that motivational sentiment.  The de-motivational posters offer a satirical parody but often contain a grain of truth.  One of my favorites features a tennis player on his knees with hands raised to his head in anguish.  The caption below the photo reads – “STUPIDITY – “Winners never quit and quitters never win.  But those who never win and never quit are idiots.”

Beyond the obvious chuckles, this poster illustrates an important aspect of behavioural science.  Any reasonable person has to win a certain percentage of the time or they would simply give up the game.  Conversely, after losing a game a number of times, a reasonable person would conclude that the game is not worth playing.  It’s an important concept.  The eventual reward has to be worth the effort to play the game.  And this is as true for our dogs as it is for us.

Up for the game

While most people don’t usually think of it this way, training a dog is a lot like a game of charades.  We are trying to get our dog to do a behaviour we want them to do but we can’t just explain what we want and have them do it.  That means there is going to be some trial and error on both sides as we try to communicate what we mean and our dog tries to produce what they think is a correct response.  Sometimes they “get it” more quickly and sometimes it can take three or four different approaches to get the message across.  And just like a game of charades there will be lots of little successes and failures along the way.

The trick to good training, in my opinion, is not about getting the end result you want quickly.  I believe that the trick to good training is producing a dog that enjoys playing the “training game” as often as possible.  That may sound a little strange but here’s what I mean.  It’s great that you can get a dog to sit or lie down or heel by whatever method you might choose.  It’s great for right now.  It’s great for the behaviour you wanted to train today.  But if your dog doesn’t enjoy the process of learning that behaviour, how willing will she be to learn the next behaviour?  Or the behaviour after that?  Or the one you want to teach her 2 years from now?

Winning and losing – It’s how you play the game

So, back to our de-motivation poster, what happens if your dog never wins?  Does she have the option to quit when she’s had enough?  Depends on the trainer I guess.  In any case, I’ve never personally met a dog stupid enough to want to keep playing if they never, ever win.  Even small victories are enough to keep some dogs in the game.

Perspective is important.  As the trainer, we’re trying to get our dog to do the behaviour that we want.  In that context, we “win” when the dog does what we ask when we give the cue.  But how does the dog “win”?  I suppose that depends on how you train.  For those of us who use reinforcement-based training, the answer is easy – the dog “wins” when we give them the reward during training.  More traditional trainers will spare the dog from scolding or other punishments when they do the behaviour correctly.  Whether it’s getting something pleasant or avoiding something unpleasant, the dog “wins” when we say they win.

This is where things can get a little sticky.  Just like that game of charades I mentioned, sometimes doing the behaviour we want is not an all-or-nothing decision.  While we are training any behaviour, there may be opportunities to let our dog know that they are on the right track even if they haven’t figured out the whole behaviour yet.  Similarly, there will be opportunities to tell our dogs that they are not doing what we are asking them to do by correcting them.  There might be a lot of little “wins” and “losses” along the way.

Making a superstar

All of our greatest sports heroes have lost games at some time.  They have made errors.  They have messed up and gotten it wrong.  But in the end, they found a reason to continue in their sport and become champions.  That takes training and dedication and something more.  Success.  There has to be a certain measure of success along the way to provide the motivation to keep trying to improve.  As dog trainers, we get to decide how we want to motivate our dogs while training.  That may sound like a strange idea to some people but our dogs can only learn if they are willing to cooperate.

I’ve found in working with my own dogs that a few simple rules keep me on track as a trainer to make sure my dogs always feel like it’s worth trying to work with me.  They aren’t complicated, but I find that it takes some discipline on my part to stick to the program in spite of what’s happening during training.

The 70% Rule – My dog must be “successful” 70% of the time while we are training.  That means that they will be correct 7 out of every 10 tries.  How can I guarantee that?  By changing the rules in my dog’s favor if that is what is needed.  If my dog begins failing too often, perhaps I am not doing a good job of communicating what I want.  Maybe I’m asking for too much.  They may even be getting tired.  Whatever the reason, I need to change what I’m doing and not put more pressure on my dog to get it right.  All dogs like to be winners.

The Rule of 3 – My dog cannot make 3 mistakes in a row.  If I am training and my dog has failed twice in a row, I must guarantee that on the third attempt she will be successful.  Most often I do that by asking her for a well known behaviour that I know she finds easy like “sit” or “down.”  Used in conjunction with The 70% Rule, it creates an environment where my dog wins at least twice as often as she loses and she never loses more than twice in a row.

Leave Them Wanting More – It’s important to me to quit training before my dog is too tired, frustrated, or distracted.  I want my dog to leave a training session thinking “Aww!  I was having fun!  Why did we have to quit?”  And that’s not a problem because there will be another opportunity to play the training game very soon.  Using this approach has made my dogs eager and excited when they see that it’s time to train.

Our own little champions

Of course the temptation to bend or break those rules is always there.  It is especially hard when we are getting close to a finished behaviour or it seems that my dog is on the verge of a breakthrough in learning something new.  It is very easy to say “Just one more try and I know she will get it.”  But then “one more” turns into two or three or more and before I realize it I’ve broken all of my training rules and my dog would rather just go off and sniff.  It happens.  Fortunately dogs are very forgiving.  The more successful they have had in training in the past, the more likely they are to forget our little mistakes.

This is what I like to call The 4 out of 5 Rule.  If you stick to the rules and are tried-and-true with your dog 80% of the time, they are willing to forgive and forget the other 20%.  That means I don’t have to be perfect.  I just have to get it right 4 out of 5 times and the system works.  Helping our dogs be successful and making them winners also gives them a very forgiving temperament, it seems.

We are positive reinforcement trainers but I believe these rules are important because they help us be consistent as trainers.  Our dogs are not always guessing.  They know that they are winners and they like working for us.  I’d like to think we can train the canine equivalent of Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, or Usain Bolt using this method.  We know we can train agility champions as both Vince and Tiramisu achieved these titles.

What really matters to us is that our dogs feel like winners.  Their smiles and joyful interactions with us tell us that we have been successful.  And for us, that is reward enough.  The titles and ribbons are just icing on the cake.

Until next time, have fun with your dogs.

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Photo credits –

All photos – Petra Wingate 2013

Recent Eric Brad CPDT-KA Articles:

• The Dog That Changed My Life
• Keeping Your Dog Informed
• Teaching Your Dog to Not-Behave
• The Simple Complexity of Dog Training
• What The Dog Wants