I listened to a really interesting Facebook Live yesterday put on by Denise Fenzi. It was about what to do when you get stuck in planning rather than actually training. It was exactly what I needed to hear right now! Training used to be fun, before I learned more. Perrin and I made incredible progress in the first year and a half, when I knew less and we just went out and had fun. I wasn’t videoing every exercise looking for all of my mistakes. I just trouble shot issues as they came up rather than spending hours agonizing over making clean training plans.
Part of what I have learned this month on working through TEAM with Perrin is how fast we can make progress if I just go out and work on things (rather than sitting inside stewing about the best way to do so). I have no problem troubleshooting behaviours, and know where to go to find solutions if I get stuck. I only get hung up in the training plans because that is the ‘right’ way to do it. Admittedly, doing things ‘right’ matters much more for Sei than Perrin. If I mess up and frustrate Perrin, some handler screw up cookies makes it all better. Not so for Sei. But still, I get a lot farther learning from my mistakes with Sei, than I do from doing nothing at all.
Overall message:
Just get out and train! You will get much farther trying something than sitting and thinking about training the ideal way.
Other things I was pretty vindicated to hear coming from an experienced trainer I enjoy following:
- TEAM1 is boring
- Go train and have fun even if it isn’t perfect or what you ‘should’ be working on, especially when doing behaviour work because it is boring, frustrating and like watching paint dry because progress comes so slowly.
Adventures in Dog Training 