"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." Albert Einstein
Last weekend I trained Maaya "out" (taking a jump obstacle from the opposite side). It was her 2nd session on this topic. She did it nicely, so I progressed with every new try a bit. After 3 tries I stood cca 3m far from the obstacle. Maaya ran again behind the wing - but this time she ran around whole obstacle - she did not jump back to me. I simply didn´t click and said nothing. She fluenty continued to the obstacle again, ran behind the wing and jumped nicely back to me - I clicked and gave her a JACKPOT.
That´s why we train our dogs with positive reinforcement. They don´t care about mistakes. Well, they do - they know that a mistake = new try. They are not stressed because of not coming reward, they do not become crazy, etc. They just simply try it again. Nice and easy way of comunication. Many dog trainers know it and train their dogs this way.
The question which came to my mind this morning was - why we people don´t handle with our own mistakes like our dogs do????
Dogs are "trained" by dog-trainers and circumstances around. We people are "trained" by our parents - and also circumstances around - teachers, friends, colleagues, TV, press, internet, FB, ...
Today, in the time of "natural parentage" boom, many of us know how we should talk to our children - to teach them to make decisions, to take the responsibility for their choices, to let their personalities grow ... and not be afraid of their mistakes.
So well, we know how to train our dogs, we know how to teach our children ... but do we know how to handle with ourselves? While looking around, I do see people afraid of responsibility, afraid to admit own done mistakes, even afraid to say their own ideas loud - on one side. Or on the other side I do see people with big egos. None of these work in a animal-human communication. Why do we still think this works in human communication ???
If we would lie to our dog, his cooperation will probably break soon. What will happen if we would lie to ourselves?
Yes, it´s not easy to admit that we did some mistake. Especially if it fluents (or even hurts) someone else. But we should learn to do it. Even if people around will be screaming at us. That´s their part of learning themselves. None of us has been born perfect. We all are learning during whole life.
Instead of talking we should more listen to. Instead of showing we should more watch.
We should be honest. Honest to the others, but most of all - honest to ourselves ...
And we should learn to say: "I did a mistake. I´m sorry. I´m doing to try it again and make it better."
That´s why we train our dogs with positive reinforcement. They don´t care about mistakes. Well, they do - they know that a mistake = new try. They are not stressed because of not coming reward, they do not become crazy, etc. They just simply try it again. Nice and easy way of comunication. Many dog trainers know it and train their dogs this way.
The question which came to my mind this morning was - why we people don´t handle with our own mistakes like our dogs do????
Dogs are "trained" by dog-trainers and circumstances around. We people are "trained" by our parents - and also circumstances around - teachers, friends, colleagues, TV, press, internet, FB, ...
Today, in the time of "natural parentage" boom, many of us know how we should talk to our children - to teach them to make decisions, to take the responsibility for their choices, to let their personalities grow ... and not be afraid of their mistakes.
So well, we know how to train our dogs, we know how to teach our children ... but do we know how to handle with ourselves? While looking around, I do see people afraid of responsibility, afraid to admit own done mistakes, even afraid to say their own ideas loud - on one side. Or on the other side I do see people with big egos. None of these work in a animal-human communication. Why do we still think this works in human communication ???
If we would lie to our dog, his cooperation will probably break soon. What will happen if we would lie to ourselves?
Yes, it´s not easy to admit that we did some mistake. Especially if it fluents (or even hurts) someone else. But we should learn to do it. Even if people around will be screaming at us. That´s their part of learning themselves. None of us has been born perfect. We all are learning during whole life.
Instead of talking we should more listen to. Instead of showing we should more watch.
We should be honest. Honest to the others, but most of all - honest to ourselves ...
And we should learn to say: "I did a mistake. I´m sorry. I´m doing to try it again and make it better."
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