Lorrie [00:00:08]:
Welcome to the Maximum Fun Agility podcast. I'm Lorrie Reynolds, owner of Maximum Fun Dog Sports. We help your agility team build your relationship, communication, confidence, and fun in training so that you can joyfully succeed on any course. In this episode, we'll talk about "screw-up cookies" and how they can improve your training sessions. My seminar students have often joked that I need a loud playback device that would let me record the things I say 500 times in each seminar, and I could just hit a button to save my voice. Nominations for phrases include things like, "get off the gamble line", "where are your shoulders?", "your dog can do it, stop babysitting", "your cue is late", "take a step", and probably my favorite and most used one, "reward your dog!". Something happens to our brains when we are training. When things go well, it is very easy to remember to give our dog a treat or throw the toy.
Lorrie [00:01:09]:
After an exercise is complete, if it went well, our brain adds a "the end", and we reward. But when training goes sideways, especially when we are the ones at fault, we get so focused on trying again that sometimes we forget that our dogs need to get paid for their effort. We try again and again without remembering to feed our dogs for each attempt. Hence, my most used phrase, "reward your dog". The paycheck your dog gets when you mess up is what I define as a "screw-up cookie" to my students. Think about the last time you were in a weekly class and you stopped to listen to the instructor's critique. What did you do with your dog? Did you bring him to you and ask him to sit or grab his collar while you listened to the instructions? Did you let him wander off until your instructor was finished talking? If you stopped and rewarded before listening to the instructor, good for you. You are in the minority.
Lorrie [00:02:11]:
In my seminars, it usually goes like this. "Stop. Let's try that again and make it cleaner." "REWARD YOUR DOG." "Here's what we can change to make it better." While I appreciate that people want to learn and hear what I have to say, I appreciate it even more if they ignore me for a second and give the dog a treat or toss a toy. Despite the "all caps", it's not an angry yell. I completely understand that people get caught up in what they are doing.
Lorrie [00:02:41]:
I just don't want it to impact the dogs. Rewarding for effort keeps the dog's motivation high. We want our dogs to know that working with us pays off. We want to keep them engaged and excited about training. When we just switch off after making a mistake and forget to provide a reward, we are in essence punishing the dog for something we did. This can lead to a dog who shuts down if everything isn't perfect or who loses confidence in your cues. If your dog did exactly what you asked him to do, even if it wasn't what you really wanted, and you don't reward him, he won't trust that cue the next time. So next time you make a training mistake, pretend I'm pushing that button on the recording, and remember to give your dog a screw-up cookie and reward him before trying again.
Lorrie [00:03:37]:
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Maximum Fun Agility podcast. If you want to build a successful agility team where runs with your partner feel flowing and in sync, join us in The Agility Playground. The Agility Playground is a low-cost membership that meets you where you are on your dog agility journey and helps you propel your team to new heights. You can check out The Agility Playground and join our community at www.maximumfundogs.com. See you next time.
