Most of us enjoy being successful. Whether we're learning a new hobby, playing a sport, or tackling a project at work, success feels good. It boosts our confidence, keeps us motivated, and encourages us to keep going.
Dogs enjoy success, too! When they understand what we expect of them and learn that we reward them for doing it correctly, they become enthusiastic learners.
However, because we are motivated by success, we sometimes unintentionally make training harder for our dogs.
Our Tendency to Keep Raising the Bar
Imagine you're teaching your dog a new skill. At first, your dog struggles, but after several repetitions they finally get it right. Wow! You feel great! Of course you praise your dog and reward them.
Then a thought naturally occurs: "They got it! Let's make it a little harder." So you increase the challenge.
Maybe you're teaching a stay. Your dog successfully stays for ten seconds, so you reward them and then ask for twenty seconds. They succeed at twenty, so you try thirty. Before long, you've increased the difficulty several times in a single training session.
From our perspective, this feels logical because we're building on success. Plus all the successes feel amazing!
From the dog's perspective, however, you can seem impossible to please.
Imagine Taking a Test That Never Ends
To understand how this feels to a dog, imagine taking a math test.
You answer all ten questions correctly and feel good about your performance. After congratulating you, instead of ending the test, the teacher immediately hands you a more difficult test.
You complete that successfully, and another even harder test appears. Then another. And another.
Eventually you’ll be tired, having difficulty focusing, and you’ll begin to feel less confident, even though you've been successful throughout the process.
Many dogs experience something similar when every success is immediately followed by a more difficult challenge.
Why Frustration Appears
Dogs generally become frustrated when one of two things happens:
- They don't understand what you’re asking them to do.
- The task becomes too difficult too quickly.
When we continually increase criteria without allowing a dog to enjoy repeated success at an easier level, we can accidentally create both situations.
Their confusion often looks like stubbornness, distraction, or lack of interest when it's actually frustration.
The Importance of Easy Repetitions
One of the most valuable skills a trainer can develop is knowing when not to make the task harder.
If you're teaching a stay and your dog successfully stays for thirty seconds, instead of immediately increasing to forty-five seconds, you might:
- Ask for another thirty-second stay.
- Then another.
- Then a shorter twenty-second stay.
This pattern gives your dog multiple opportunities to succeed before you increase the challenge again.
Training Should Build Confidence
When dogs experience success repeatedly, several good things happen:
- They become more enthusiastic about training.
- They offer behaviors more confidently.
- They recover from mistakes more quickly.
- They remain engaged for longer periods of time.
A confident dog approaches training thinking: "I know how to play this game."
A frustrated dog approaches training thinking: "I'm not sure what happens next."
The Value of Ending on a Success
One way to prevent frustration is to end training sessions with a task your dog can do well.
Many of us want to stop immediately after a failure because both we and our dog are feeling discouraged.
Instead, if your dog struggles with a new challenge, go back to something easier that you know they can accomplish. Let them succeed. Reward generously. Then end the session.
This helps preserve your dog's confidence and enthusiasm for the next training session.
Progress Is Not Always Linear
We often picture learning as a straight line moving steadily upward.
In reality, learning tends to look more like a staircase. There are periods of rapid improvement followed by periods where the dog simply practices and becomes more confident with what they already know.
Those periods of consolidation are important. They allow skills to become reliable and help prevent frustration.
Remember That Training Is a Partnership
As trainers and dog lovers, it's natural for us to become excited when our dogs are making progress. We want to see what they're capable of, and we want to help them learn more.
But sometimes the most productive thing we can do is pause before increasing the difficulty.
A training session filled with success is not a wasted session. In fact, it may be one of the most valuable sessions you can have.
When our dogs understand what we expect, feel confident in their abilities, and experience regular success, they become eager participants in the learning process.
And that enthusiasm is one of the greatest gifts we can give them as trainers.