I love to finish things. Being able to check something off my to-do list gives me great satisfaction.  I even enjoy the planning and organizing part of tasks and projects.  It’s doing the actual work that’s the issue!  I have a feeling I’m not alone in this.

The hard part is going from the shiny new exciting beginning through the process to get to the goal.  That process is often the sticking point for me.  I’ve discovered over the years that any task or goal is basically the same in terms of how I approach it.  Thinking about it and planning to do it is not that difficult.  I know what I want to do and can usually figure out the best way to do it.  Then I want to be at the end immediately; that part where it gets checked off.  That pesky middle part is what holds me back.

High Expectations are the Enemy

It’s taken me decades to figure out a system that works for me for most things in life.  The first step is to scale back my expectations right away.  Rather than decide “today I’m going to clean the bathroom” I pull out a small piece that I don’t mind doing so much as a micro goal.  So maybe “I’m going to clean the bathroom sink and counter.”  That will take me less than 5 minutes, and I have accomplished a goal to check off my mental running tally.  Once I’ve done that, behavioral momentum takes over.  I’m in the bathroom and I have the cleaning supplies out, so I might as well do the toilet.  Again, less than 5 minutes.  I don’t have to do it if I don’t want to, but getting that first micro task completed makes it much more likely I’ll continue.  And by then I’m half done with the bathroom so I might as well tackle the shower (my least favorite part, maybe slightly more than 5 minutes).  And then all that’s left is the floor, so that comes along pretty naturally.  And if I stop after the sink?  That’s still one thing accomplished and it’s still a success.  The rest might need to wait for another time.

I use this approach for work-related projects as well.  If I need to design a presentation I can start with the micro task of choosing the template and designing the cover page.  That usually takes me about 5 minutes.  I might stop there for the day.  Or, I might decide to add an outline slide for the presentation.  Then each point on the outline is its own micro task to complete.  Writing out the text is its own task.  Finding and adding a video to a specific point is another.  These little bits add up.  Once I’ve started, again, behavioral momentum takes over and I may do much more than I intended, but that’s not the goal.  The goal is the tiny task I set out to accomplish.  Anything else that’s done is a bonus for that particular work session.

And now to dog training…

And of course, this circles back around to dog training because everything in the world circles back around to dog training.  Whenever I sit down to prepare a training plan I enjoy the first stage, where I can consider all the small segments that make up the behavior or skill I want to teach.  Much as I enjoy this stage I have to force myself not to spend too much time on it.  One reason is that it becomes a way to procrastinate and avoid getting started on the actual work.  Another is that what I plan in theory may not work at all in practice, and I’ll have to adapt and regroup.  Even the best considered training plans simply don’t always work the way you expect them to.  There’s no point in spending significant time on something that may need to be discarded.  Often, the more time we plan the more we try to salvage it, even when it is clearly not the right approach.  

Even so, I need to have done enough work on “splits” in the first stage so that I can work with my dog in a way that encourages success rather than failure.  No matter what I’m teaching, it needs to be quickly reinforcing for my dog.  If something is too difficult or confusing, then I will lose my dog’s interest and enthusiasm.  This is a good reason why keeping sessions short is so important.  Short sessions allow me to see how the plan is working without pushing to destruction.  Then I can regroup and adjust for the next short session.  I personally try to get students to stick to two minute sessions, but that’s really difficult for people to do.  After a two minute session, spend a couple more minutes reviewing that work and adjusting for the next one. What I’ve seen over and over again in class videos is that the first 30 seconds of a session give me the most information.  After that it’s often repeating the same thing over and over, which ends up being a problem in clarity, or making the same error over and over, which is leading you down a very bad path. Or, the dog simply gets distracted or fatigued the longer you go on and makes more and more errors.   

The thing is, longer sessions don’t lead to faster results.  In fact, they can often be a big part of why you’re not making progress.  If you’re continuing to do the same thing that isn’t working for longer you’re just digging a bigger hole for yourself.  If you’re continuing to work at the same level without slowly raising criteria you’re going to kill your dog’s enthusiasm level.  Dogs enjoy challenges as long as those challenges make sense to them and allow them a chance to work it out without frustration.  

Making Class Videos

I’ve spent the last few months working on my newest class Open Wide: Stress-Free Mouth Handling & Dental Care. CLICK HERE for details.

I worked with both Neo and Wizard on making the demo videos for the course.  In that time I did lots of lots and lots of short sessions.  I’d have something I wanted to demonstrate for the course and I’d shoot a video of it.  I always do class videos in one take with no edits.  Then I would review the recording to see if I needed to make any changes.  If I did, I would make another video with the adjustments.  99% of the time I use my first take. I’m not looking for perfection in these videos, just a clear sequence of steps.  If I made a mechanical error or an error of expectation I’d acknowledge it in the video, adjust on the fly, and keep going. If everything looked good I would move on to the next small step in the process, and repeat.  

At the end of my preparation for the course, over a number of very short training sessions, both dogs were significantly better than when I started.  Before they were “fine”; meaning they tolerated it.  Now they would practically fight to be the one chosen to get teeth done!  I was amazed at the huge progress they both made in a very short time frame with very short training sessions.  If you want to get better results by training less come join me in this course.  

Deborah Jones, Ph.D. is a retired psychology professor who now trains animals full-time.  She has been training for 30+ years and focuses on positive reinforcement based methods.  Deb has written 13 books on dog training and has helped develop several DVD series way back in the day.  She has also trained and shown multiple breeds to high level titles in agility, rally, and obedience.  She is currently teaching online training classes, workshops, and webinars at www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com.  Her latest project is the Cooperative Care Trainer Certificate course.  Visit her website at www.k9infocus.com for her blog and more information.