How Training Dogs Relates To Training Humans
By Shane Plummer
I have been training people in some capacity for most of my adult life,
which in retrospect, is not a terribly long period of time. I have always
been under the impression that training people is a very simplistic task
-- you show or tell them how to do something, then expect them to complete
the task exactly right. Simple, right? ……….Wrong!
Two years ago in my 26th year of existence, I obtained my first very own
dog; he is a black and white American Cocker Spaniel named Remington.
Since I was born, I have been around hunting dogs. My family had an Irish
Setter then three English Springer Spaniels. They were a part of my life,
but Remington was the first I would get to train on my own. Prior to getting
Remington I had read numerous books and magazine articles; I bought videos,
and watched ESPN Dog Chronicles faithfully every Sunday morning. I was jammed
full of knowledge, ambition, and cockiness, -- said to myself that training
Remington was going to a piece of cake. Boy, was I wrong!
In my preparation for training my newest companion, I failed to consider
important factors such as his individual personality and my communication
with him. I was in a nasty bind; I wasn’t prepared to work through
things I interpreted as stubbornness and defiance. During the early stages
of training I tried to work on simple obedience commands such as "HUP",
"Heal", "Come", and the big one "NO"! I do
have to say that Remington understood "NO" very well -- not in
the way I wanted him to, but, "NO, I’m not going to do what
you want." At first when he would refuse to respond to my commands,
I would get wound up tighter then a drum, start raising my voice, and pretty
much give myself a coronary. I was getting nowhere and was forced to sit
back and re-think the situation.
As everyone knows dogs cannot communicate with humans in the verbal sense;
they cannot tell us if they are sick, if they are hungry (which I think
they always are), or if they can understand what we ask of them. Originally
what I had thought was stubbornness or defiance with Remington turned out
to be misunderstanding. I learned this by more closely studying his body
language and reactions to my commands. I found what I thought was defiance
was really a lack of confidence.
With everything in life, for every action, there is a reaction. In order
to get the reaction you desire, you must discover what action will create
that reaction. For the first year or more of training I tried to achieve
these results by trial and error. I then surrounded myself with tenured
people of the Maine Spaniel Field Trial Club who had already figured out
key methods from their own trial and error to achieve desired reactions.
Learning to read canine behavior has really paid off.
The Connection
You may say, "How does all of this relate to humans"?
As I mentioned initially, I have been training people most of my adult life.
In the past year and a half I have been the Training Manager for Pine Tree
Mortgage Inc. out of Freeport, Me. During that period of time I have trained
nearly 100 new loan officers for branches throughout New England.
When I first started, just like with dogs, I was full of knowledge that
I wished to share, overly cocky, and ambitious. In a two week period I would
give people the information that had made me lots of money, and in return
from receiving this information from me, they were supposed to make the
company lots of money. Wrong!
Yes, most of the people turned out to be very successful, but there were
about thirty percent that were not. I couldn’t figure it out and it
was definitely not acceptable. I had asked these people many times if they
understood what I was talking about, and most always the answer was "yes"!
Obviously they didn’t understand because they couldn’t put my
words into practice.
One night, I was sitting down in back of my house with Remington pondering
the problems at work. Was I properly giving the information to the 30% of
the people that didn’t seem to be productive, or was something wrong
with them? I was deep in thought over this problem and watching Remington
at the same time, studying his body language and expressions as I did on
a regular basis. While I was doing this a thought popped into my mind. "Why
wouldn’t it be just as important to watch the body language and expressions
of people as it is with the dogs?" Just because I was telling them
to do something didn’t mean they could do it.
Maybe this seems like a simple concept to most people, but it was not one
I had ever given much consideration. When I was asking people, "Do
you understand?," most would answer, "Yes!" What I have come
to realize is that "Yes" doesn’t always mean "Yes".
That next day in class I tested my theory by starting to watch the body
language and expressions of my new loan officers. When asking the question,
"Do you understand?," I would look directly at the person. Was
this person answering "Yes" with confidence, or was this person
squirming in their seat, or maybe turning a different color in the face.
Were they too embarrassed to say they didn’t understand? Did their
lack of confidence keep them from following my program?
Following up on this theory has allowed me to better read people, to relate
to people, both at home and in the work place, much like how it has allowed
me to better relate to my dogs.
Now there are two dogs in our home. I have acquired a second dog, an English
Springer Spaniel named Gauge -- bought this past Christmas for my wife,
Amanda. I won’t say that training her has been easy, but I’m
trying to read her behavior and her reactions to us. It has allowed me not
to make the same mistakes I made with Remington. (I’ll find other
mistakes to make with Gauge.)
Shane D Plummer
P O Box 16
Woolwich Me 04579
950 words
Spaniels in the Field
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