Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Canine Connection
podcast. So today, Lori and I, we're going to
talk about my super, super, super baby, baby,
baby beginning steps and nose work. But it's
also going to lead into reading your dogs. And
I think that's something we're going to build
on. Probably, I'm guessing, for more than one
episode. Because... Well, it's just very complicated.
It's something that the vast majority of our
students struggle with. We've talked about this.
And recently someone contacted me, someone that
I respect and know, and that person was like,
hey, guys, you really need to do a podcast on
it. People struggle on it. So first off, I thought,
I said, well, I know that, but... it's really
hard to teach. Like, and for me, I feel like
it's this weird intuitive thing, but I'm like,
it can't be. So I started spending a lot of time
thinking about it. And I started thinking about,
okay, like maybe we need to start brainstorming
about how we can break it down into a way that
people can kind of understand. So in the meantime,
something interesting happened, which is I've
started doing nose work with my dogs. Right.
And nose work is especially when you've done
a bunch of different sports, which all where
all of which, you know. What what the parameters
are. So, for example, if I do field work, I know
where the birds are. It is a known. It's not
a secret. It's not a surprise. Everybody knows
where the birds will land. When you do agility,
everybody sees the course. They do the same course.
They walk the same course. They know what the
rules are. They know where the contacts are.
You run the course. You know if your dog failed
or not, right? Same with obedience and rally.
Nose work, completely different animal. You don't
know where the hides are. And when you get to
the higher levels, let's be clear, I've not gotten
there. There are situations where there are no
hides in the search area. And you must say, after
the dog searches for a certain amount of time,
you need to make a decision on your own and say,
there are no more here. Or they'll say there
could be zero to three hides. And in any event,
you need to be able to not just say. My dog found
it. You must also say there is nothing here.
And you don't know the answer. So from someone
that's come from all these predictable sports,
holy cow, it is a like jumping into an ice cold
pool because you're like, whoa. And like when
I even when I call alert and my dog is clear
as day, like it's here, indicates it looks at
me. I'm still like alert. I don't know for sure.
So talk about a huge part of this whole teamwork
scenario being you reading your dog. Right. I
realized when talking with some of my training
partners and. and my friend yesterday we talked
about reading dogs and it was kind of interesting
because from something my friend poor Carl Carl
said right but Carl's trying really hard was
his interpretation which was a really good point
I realized something he said was that to him
reading a dog and I'm sure he's not the only
one is this kind of almost like intangible, mythical
thing. And what we actually talked about was,
yeah, it's not that. It's data. It's collecting
data, collecting evidence, and then drawing a
conclusion based on the evidence. For example,
different dogs are going to be different. So
when Zaina searches an area, to me, she's easy
to read because she's very methodical. So as
she covers an area, I can visually see she sniffed
here and she didn't give me any behavior showing
odor. So therefore, when we move on, I feel comfortable
saying that area was clear. Right. And the data
confirms that because for the vast majority of
time, she is correct. Therefore, I can feel confident
saying that when she leaves and when she sniffs
an area and leaves it, if she leaves it, there
is nothing there. But Zesty, very different.
He is like 8 ,000 miles an hour, looks like a
bull in a china shop, dives into the search area
and is going so fast, it makes my head spin.
Like, because I have to keep track of where did
he search, where didn't he search. And I'm trying
to like read him and everything's happening at
lightning speed. Now, sometimes. And this is
very deceptive. He looked like, sometimes I'm
like, I don't even think he's sniffing. And then
all of a sudden he catapult, like he runs. And
I'm like, he's not even sniffing. And he goes
straight to a hide. And he's like, it's here.
And he's correct. So I'm like, crap. I read that
wrong. And sometimes he doesn't look like he's
searching and he's not searching. Sometimes I'm
like, is he searching or not? And he sometimes
he is, sometimes he's not. So it's very, to me
right now, confusing. So I realized this last
week on my own when I was like in the park and
I was like, oh God, I don't even know what the
hell this dog's doing right now. I was like,
all right, Houston, we have a problem. Like I
need to isolate my ability to read the dog, right?
Separate from a trial, separate from in the moment
doing a search because, and I think this is a
big problem people have, and we've talked about
this a little bit, is when you as the handler
are doing multiple things at once. you don't
have enough brain space left to also read the
dog and especially not read them really fast
and rapid from there or to learn how to read
them. If I know how to read them, maybe, but
not if I'm learning. All right. And we've talked
about how in obedience and rally and pretty much
every sport you're thinking about so many things,
you don't have enough bandwidth left. So I realized.
last week I was like oh I have to isolate this
and work on this completely separately from searching
and I thought that was like a really great insight
in the sense that so now I talked to my friend
about this yesterday who says this is Carl he
says I have I can't read the dog I need help
So I said, I think that one thing you need to
do is you need to work on that separate. You
can't be quote unquote training your dog and
learning how to read your dog. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a huge piece because
I think this is really hitting the nail on the
coffin, so to speak, where people really. When
you say, you know, you need to learn to read
the dog, it's like easier said than done because
two pieces, like you just kind of talked about,
is do you even know what you're looking for?
Like, are you recognizing anything? And the difference
between Zaina and Zesty is like you've sort of
been able to recognize. her easier because of
the way she's searching opposed to zesty because
he's a little bit um not as methodical so it's
a little more difficult to recognize it he might
have multiple ways of doing it which is even
harder so learning how to like do you even know
what you're looking for can you even recognize
the behavior of reading the dog and the efficiency
of doing so, right? Like that's a big piece.
Like, like you just said, with somebody who's,
who's not quite, you know, really fluent in being
able to read a dog, let alone their own dog,
having to train the dog and also learn or try
to read the dog, it's too difficult. Right. So
that's where I think that big struggle is like
this is the big the big missing piece. And this
is why like I and I know you too. We've talked
about this too is I'm reading my dog in everyday
life in every fucking scenario. Like I'm forced
to do it, especially in my house because I live
with six dogs now. I have to read them. I have
to read to make sure like nothing bad happens
to them. You know, and then I I read them when
I'm hiking. I read them when I get them out of
the car. Like I'm constantly reading them when
I'm not actively training them, which gives.
So that's where people get stuck, though. Right.
So we say reading and they're like, well, what
does that really mean? Right. Yeah. So and this
is will align with the first thing which says,
which do you even know what you're looking for?
Because because we don't like in search. I don't
know. Right. So a couple of things. One is what
did I do? I came home. I immediately bought some
webinars on how to clear a blank area. And they
are and they're the person that Stacey Barnett
is a really good webinar. It's on her website.
And she's talking about these are. things they
do and showing video of different dogs doing
it so that's good information for me now again
I'm gonna have that does that mean my dog's gonna
exhibit those same things maybe yes maybe no
but at least it gives me some ideas but basically
and this was a great comparison and kudos to
Carl for this one yesterday Because he was because
we're like, basically, it's you have to collect
data. You have to look at what happened immediately
before and immediately after. So somehow we got
talking about a baby because he said, oh, you
mean like when you have an infant and they're
crying and you don't know what they want and
you have to figure it out. Are they hungry? Are
they tired? Are they sick? Do they have to go
to the bathroom? How do you know? Well, it's
not this magical, mystical thing. It's cause
and effect. If I offer you food and you eat and
you stop crying, you are hungry. If you don't
want to eat and oh, your diaper's getting dirty,
well, that means you were crying that way because
you had to go to the bathroom. Are neither of
those things happening and you're still crying?
Let me check. Do you have a fever? Oh, you have
a fever. You're looking at the data and you're
coming to a conclusion based on a ruling things
out. Yeah. Right. So like in obedience, we were
talking about did the dog act that way because
it was distracted, because it was feeling pressure,
because it was confused, because your handling
was off. Let's say those are the things you're
trying to rule out. OK, well. Add some distraction.
Does the dog do the same thing? Take the distraction
away. Does your dog not do it? Guess what? You
can conclude it was distraction, right? So in
essence, quote unquote, reading is really more
like gathering data and interpreting the data
based on what happens before and what happens
after cause and effect. So back in the old days
when we did a figure eight and we had human posts.
and the judge. So you're approaching three people.
So Zeal would get really excited after his healing
because he loved to heal and he was done. He's
like, oh. And then I'd go, okay, we're doing
a figure eight. And he didn't like all the people
and the pressure. So I would approach the figure
eight 100 % of the time. I would sit him and
say, we're doing the figure eight. He would yawn.
Now, a lot of people will conclude he's yawning
because he's stressed. He was not. How do I know
that? Data. Because he would yawn. And then as
soon as the judge said forward, I better get
the hell out of Dodge because he was shooting
out of there like a rocket. And he was happy
and animated and bouncy and bouncy. So if he
was stressed, he would not have healed like that.
Right. So what I concluded was he was yawning
like that to what he would yawn like that to
kind of. help him focus because he was like I
gotta focus right there's people here this is
hard I was just excited I gotta get my act together
and I need to focus right and so that's what
that yawn meant for him now I didn't read that
because I'm a savant I read that based on the
evidence of What happened before, he was really
excited. What happened, he yawned. He was a little
bit calmer, but he was still energetic and happy
and so on. So I came to that conclusion based
on the information, right? So that's why I think
where people have to start. is A, they have to
videotape, right? Because in the moment, you're
probably not going to be able to do it. Then
I suggested to Carl, go in your building, train
your dog, but don't do anything complicated.
The whole goal of what you're going to do with
the dog in that session is you're going to record
it and you're going to look at your dog and you're
going to try to... evaluate what your dog is
thinking moment by moment by moment as you go
through some exercises, right? Like some whatever
training exercises. Yeah. And then anytime you're
like, oh, I'm not sure, you can go back immediately
afterwards and look at the videotape and go,
I wasn't sure why he did this here. Rewind, look
at what happened before. Fast forward, look at
what happened after. Draw some conclusions, draw
some theories. And then if you're not sure, I
can look at it and I can help you figure it out.
But at least now you're separately out of...
working just on evaluating the data so you can
learn to read the dog. And if you do that routinely,
if you separately say, this is what I'm going
to work on, or if you look at trial videos and
go, why did my dog make that mistake? All right,
let me see what happened before the mistake happened.
Because I say to my students all the time, I
need to see what happened before. And there will
be information there. And then you're going to
learn over time, oh, every time my dog drops
its head and pins its ears back, it's because
a person's moving close to the dog and they don't
like that. And then things happen, right? Because
you start to see a pattern. What happened before?
What did my dog do when that happened? And then
what resulted? Did the dog, you know? fail after
that or struggle or work well after that or whatever.
Does any of this make sense? Yeah, well, it does.
It does. Absolutely. I think when we talk about
or when you were just talking about, you know,
collecting the data and paying it, I want to
say when we're when we're really talking about
reading the dog, it really needs to be said,
you need to be paying attention. So this is a
big one. You're going to miss all the subtleties
of your dog's behavior if you're not really 100
% paying attention. I'm in my zone. You'll miss
it. That's got to just be said. And I do believe
that this skill is easier for some people and
not for... not for others, not as easy for others.
I think because of maybe level of just intuition,
right? I, I would say I'm a pretty intuitive
person. I'm constantly reading. I read like the
vibe. I read the vibe when I walk in a room,
I read the energy. I don't, I'm not like, you
know, I'm not like, no, I get it. I'm the same
person, but like, yeah, I would consider myself
a pretty, like I can, especially if I know somebody.
Right. If you walked up to me and you were having
a bad day, I could probably read that pretty
quickly on you, like without you even having
to even say anything, because I'm just that kind
of person. I'm just reading, reading, reading,
reading all the time. I don't think that comes
naturally to everybody and let alone. Sorry,
Carl, but men especially. Yeah. You know, like
they don't pick up on fucking subtleties like
hello. Sometimes they're just clueless. And I'm
not bashing you, Carl. But I think that that's
a big piece. Like you really do need to make
that effort of, you know, mindfully paying attention
because you'll miss it. You know, some of it's
not as blatant as when we just say read your
dog and the dogs out there like. blatantly showing
signs, sometimes they're really, they would be
very easy to miss if you weren't really paying
attention. Yeah. So I think that's super important.
That's why I'm starting to think that people
need to work on this separately, right? Like
they can't work on it while they're actually
like training their dog per se. And following
up on what you said, like It's a power of observation,
right? And some people are naturally always observing,
reading the room. It's a skill. So let's just
label it a skill, right? And then some people,
just like any skill, are naturally better at
some skills than others. Some people, because
for whatever reason, they're observing people
all the time. they've gotten really good at that
skill, right? So it's easier for them. But all
skills we can improve upon, we just need to practice
them more. So even if this is something you're
weak at, if you say, okay, I'm going to work
on this really hard, yeah, you'll get better
at it, right? So that's, I think, how you should
think about it as a skill. It's a skill you can
improve. It's a skill. Yes, it's easier for some
people than others naturally, but everyone can
be better at it. And even if you're not naturally
that good at it, you can absolutely improve on
it. You can. It's really important to like if
you are struggling with that or you're not sure,
then if you can find somebody or some source
to help you. have things pointed out even, you
know, like, like you just, you just said, like,
I, I went home and bought up a bunch of webinars
so I could see what should I be looking for?
Cause I really don't know. And that can be super
helpful. Yeah. And it's helpful to look. Oh God.
Holy Hannah mouth just went. So, um, to observe
other dogs. Right. As well, because even if it's
different than your dog, it just hones your observation
skills. And you must be really looking at that
and nothing else so that you can focus on that.
So you have to dedicate time. in whatever way,
whether that is with video or in, you know, obviously
eventually going to have to do it in real time,
but you have to dedicate time just to do, just
to work on that skill separately. Now, initially
you have to give yourself grace too. So I'll
give you another example. So Carl's dog's running
out to the article and then he like pile and
then he starts running around and chasing his
tail. All right. So he's like, why is he doing
that? So I'm like, well, we need to look at what
happens before. So now he notices the dog, the
behavior starting when the dog spins and chases
his tail. What I'm saying to him is that behavior
started much earlier. right you're just not seeing
the signs leading to that bigger behavior yeah
so you need to start looking backwards and so
so I said okay so what right before he chased
his tail like was he actually sniffing like did
he actually sniff. Well, no. Okay. In before
when he was running to the pile, did he run straight
to the pile and immediately start sniffing? No.
So now we're saying, so I'm moving further and
further back because I'm like, see, it started
earlier and it started even earlier. So it turns
out the behavior starts probably when he starts
sensing the article, the dog's ears go back.
That's when it's starting. Yeah. Not. When the
dog's chasing its tail. So again, it's tracking
the data backwards because the correct behavior
is ears up, happily do a pivot, run straight
to the pile. Before you're even in the pile,
their nose should already be going down and they
should be starting to sniff like before they're
even in the pile. Then they should be sniffing
the articles until they find the correct one
and run back. Right. So looking at that backwards
is what's going to lead us back to the beginning.
And that's going to help you read like and then
you're going to find the source of where it started
and then we're going to be able to work on it
from there and so on. But what happens a lot
of times is people see the big behavior like
my dog left me. Yeah. Your dog. knew it was leaving
you and told you it was going to leave you well
before it actually left. So what you need to
do is say again, I need to backtrack before my
dog left and start paying attention to the subtle
signs like my dog's ears went back. their eyes
drop their head drop they turn their head and
so on before they left yeah um so that's that's
kind of like i the strategy i would recommend
is like you know go backwards that's always really
important and go as well go forward sometimes
people are like well he acted weird but then
he did that So you have to look at the full picture
to get to get a better understanding of what's
happening and the sequence of events so that
eventually you can learn. Like I always go, well,
my dog would never leave me. Is that because
my dogs are so well behaved? No, Zaina, she would
leave me in a heartbeat. It's because. I, she,
she will be looking right in my face with two
eyeballs, looking eyeball to eyeball into my
eyeballs. And I can tell when she's thinking
about something else. Right. And I'm like, I
look at her, I'm like, don't even just don't.
So I nip it in the bud so early because I have
learned over time to read the signs. Yeah. Like
in her case, when her nose is going all the way
over to the right or all the way over to the
left or when her ears going like way back on
her head that she's looking at me because she
knows that's the correct behavior. But she is
thinking about something else. Yeah. So that
so. Did I figure that out immediately? No. Trial
and error, right? Drawing some incorrect conclusions.
Making some mistakes. Oh, whoopsie, she's gone.
Guess I didn't read that fast enough. But I think
the starting point, and I am going to have a
bunch of my students work on this. is I'm going
to give them the assignment to just separately
in a session work on reading their dog. So like
what Stacy said, which was a really good point
is like, take a room. There's no odor in it.
Send your dog in there to search for it. Now
I'm probably, I may, there may be a little nuance
that I'm not saying correctly. I'm just saying
for general purposes. and watch how the dog searches.
And then I'm going to do it again. This is what
I'm going to do with my dog. Could be wrong.
I'm sure people will be critiquing me for this,
but then I'm going to do the same room and I'm
going to put a hide in there and I should see
a difference. And my whole goal on that is for
me personally to observe my dog and to learn
what does my dog look like when there's no odor
in the room and what does my dog look like when
there is odor in the room. Am I going to learn
it from one trial? Hell no. Am I going to have
to do it a whole lot? Uh -huh. Yeah. But it's
a start. And again, the point is I'm going to
isolate out. that I am just working on reading
my dog. And then, cause you know, God forbid
I save my money and retire someday. Why would
I do that? I went out and bought a GoPro so that
I can film my searches when he's doing them.
And then I can go back and watch and I can separately
just work on reading the dog. Right. Like I'm
not going to look at, oh, look, he found the
search or oh, no, I'm just going to look at his
body language and start collecting data for myself
on this specific dog. Right. And that's where
I think people need to start with, quote unquote,
reading the dog. Yeah. Yeah, because it really
needs to be because you do have to treat it like
a skill and you need to really isolate it. You
can't like with everything else, learning something
new, you can't be doing it simultaneously while
you're doing other things. It's kind of like
the, you know, pat your head, rub your stomach
kind of tummy kind of thing. That's too difficult.
Now, why is that so hard? It's really hard. Very
hard. Very hard. It's just really like multitasking,
like your brain multitasking. And, you know,
can you run the multitasking efficiently across
the board with all the things you're doing? Yeah.
Unless you're like a brainiac about it. Well,
and that's the other thing we talked about is
the importance of putting as many. other skills
as possible on autopilot yeah right so we talked
about he says i memorized my footwork because
i told him he had to so he didn't need to think
about that in the ring right and um i'm always
talking to people about the importance of standardizing
their handling yeah so that it's the same every
time why so they don't need to think about i'm
trying to like clear space in your brain, right?
I'm trying, you can't read your dog if your brain
is cluttered by basic tasks. If you're thinking
about your footwork and your handling and your
marking and there's no room. So those things
should all be on autopilot. Like when I go in
the ring, everything is on autopilot. Therefore
I can think about. reading my dog and reacting
so he said like he that he has certain things
on autopilot he goes but then I'm thinking about
where to go and this and that so we talked about
that I said well you shouldn't have to you know
ahead of time with most sports not nose work
but again we talked about like You know where
things are going to be. So you have a strategy.
So you should stand outside the ring and decide
I'm going to enter the ring this way. I'm going
to put my leash here. I'm going to go in this
direction to set my dog up at this spot. Then
when exercise is finished, I'm going to do this
with my dog. So like your ring entrance should
be standardized, your transitions, your setups.
How you're going to get from point A to point
B, you can determine all that like outside the
ring. So all that should be done because you
should not like ideally you are not thinking
about that stuff in the ring or in the moment,
because if you are, you cannot read your dog.
You can't. Right. And I think that's part of
my problem right now as well with nose work.
I find is I'm thinking about other things. And
that is interfering, right? And that comes with
you're new to it. You're new to the sport. And
that needs to be said because I think there can
be a level of frustration with people who are
like, you know, like they just they can't. They
can't get it. They can't do it. Like you need
to give yourself time. It's just with everything
else, mastering one thing at a time, which we've
talked about too. Taking that one thing, like
you said to Carl, master this. Now master this,
right? So you have to isolate all those things
and master them before you can do all of them
at the same time, right? Without consciously
having to think about it. you know, that's your
goal. Like anyone starting out doing any sort
of sport, obviously you're not going to be at
that. You're going to have some of that junk
in the, even if you start trialing, like that's
just gained from the, you know, conscientious
effort of mastering everything one at a time
until you get to that point. after experience
and experience and experience that you can go
in the ring and be able to do all of that without
even thinking about it. Yeah. Like, and I'm like,
because I'm new, right. So I'm like in this school,
in a hallway, my dog's never been in a school,
right. In a hallway. Cause they stage you. Well,
I, my dogs have never staged like, yeah, they
wait. for their turn and obedience, but it's,
it's like a set routine, right? So when I do
nose work, like I go for my lessons or I train,
but it's kind of, you know, my dog hasn't done
that whole staging thing. So, so what's the point?
I'm sitting there like, is my dog even going
to know what to do? Like, I don't even know if
he's going to know what to do. Like, is he going
to like, just think we're out? Like, oh, cool.
Like, we're just going to run around. Like, how
does he even know? And then I'm like, okay. And
I don't know the strategy. I'm like, well, I
know it's nose work one. Should I just let him
like run and see if he finds it or do I guide
him because he does better if I guide him. But
like, I, I don't, I don't know the best strategy.
Like, I don't know, you know, so all these things
are running through my head and that's a normal
beginner experience. Right. So the good thing
is I, I became aware of what I was doing and.
Some of it I was able to mitigate so that his
Zesty's first search was exterior. I was like,
oh, crap, because, you know, it's my dogs are
starting this as adult dogs. He my dogs off leash
hike, as we all know. So they see big, wide open
outdoors and they're like, yes. And I'm like,
no, we're doing sniffy stuff. So I've had to
work really hard on that. But I still get a little
nervous, like, oh, God, I hope he knows he's
searching and doesn't just run amok or like decide
to pee on something. Right. Has he? And like,
no, but. And because we haven't developed that
experience, that trust and, and this is on me.
Right. So I completely might over managed his
search. And like, I know I did like, even in
the moment at some point, he's looking at my
hand and I'm like, Oh God, like I must be acting
like a lunatic. Cause like, he's like, what the
fuck are you doing? Oh, my God. And I'm like,
get it together. Stop it. And then he does the
fine, whatever. I go to my car. I'm like, what
are you doing? Like, just stop it. Like, stop
the madness. And then I got it together. Right.
Because at least I have enough experience that
I recognize when I'm going off the rails. Most
people don't even recognize when they're going
off the rails. Yeah. Recognize that you're going
off the rails. Fix it. And what's going to happen
is the more trials I do, like. Um, and the more
dogs I get, I'm going to have the experience
to build on and those things are going to get
easier and they're going to get better. Right.
So it's just like you said, like give yours,
we have to give ourselves grace and we have to
just say, okay, we need to keep improving on
this. So I leave and I say to myself always,
all right, what are all the things I need to
improve upon? Right. What are all the things
I could have done better? And some things I don't
know so that I ordered the videos because you
could order them because I want to look at it
and I want to look at it with my trainer and
I want my trainer to say, well, I would have
done it this way or you could have done this
better or maybe I would have done this. Or she
might say in this situation with this dog, even
though maybe it was a slower option, that's how
I would have done it. But that's the only way
you're going to learn. Right. Is so I didn't.
I'm not beating myself up for acting like a knucklehead.
Like I kind of laughed at myself. I was like,
Oh my God, like what the hell? Um, and you know,
yeah, I wish I would have done it better, but
whatever, you know, onward and upward, like I'm
going to learn from that and I'm going to get
better. As I go on, because I'm going to just
keep trying to improve. So that's what we should
be looking to do, right? Is trying to be better.
And yeah, I'm probably not reading him or her
as well as I should be. Like I, because I'm thinking
about other things, which is kind of a really
weird feeling for me because I haven't done that
for a very long time in other sports. So now
that I'm starting something new. I'm like, oh
my God, like, what are you even doing? Like,
you know, why are you thinking, oh, maybe the
hide could be there. That's not your job. That's
the dog's job. Like, what do you think, you know?
Well, it's kind of nice because it is like, yeah,
it's like bringing you to the level that you
haven't been in a long, long time of being in
something that you're not really, you haven't
mastered yet, right? Right. So it's. it's kind
of nice for our like listeners and your students
because now there's a little bit of a even playing
field. Oh no, totally. Because I'm just like.
Yeah. It's uncomfortable like that. It's like
if like when my girls were younger, they'd be
like, oh, my God, you need to do this dance with
us. And I'd be like, oh, my God, I'm not doing
that. I can't. I'm so bad at like learning choreography.
I'm like an idiot. And they're like, no, no,
no, no. It's so easy. And I like I if it was
horrible feeling because I couldn't it. It took
me. What? Because. everybody's different in learning
and mastering on their own, you know, timeline.
It took me way longer than those two. Those two
could like watch it on the TV and have it down
pat in like one time. And I was like, I can't
even do the first three steps. It took me freaking
forever. And it was like uncomfortable. It was
messy. And that's what it feels like when you're
not fluent and have any mastery on a skill. It's
just kind of. But you strive because you care
and you have goals and you want to get better
at something. Well, that's the thing. Like, I
always just want to be better at reading my dog.
Right. So it's not a matter of like. Oh, I'm
not happy because like, look, you should be happier.
Dog's qualified. Well, I am, but I want to be
better. And I know that that journey starts now,
right? Like, I can't just be like, oh, I qualified
you for me on to two. Well, no, it's going to
keep getting harder. And my job is going to get
harder. As the dog's job gets harder. And so
at each level, I should be striving to learn
as much as I can and to continue to improve,
like managing the leash and like, which I'm not
that great at. Zaina will tell you that because
she gets so annoyed with me. She's like, dude,
you got it stuck under my leg again. Right. Like
all that stuff. And I see I'm a weirdo like I
do like I love that I am like a knucklehead right
now, like because I like the challenge. Like
I sometimes I get frustrated because I'm like,
oh, I don't know what to do. And then I go to
my instructor and I know she looks at me like
sometimes like I'm crazy, like. dude, like you're
getting your, you know, yourself on a twist and
you're talking about a search that was like really
challenging and your dog will get better at it
over time. Like, yeah, but I didn't know how
to help him and I didn't know what to do. And
she'll figure me out eventually. She'll realize
that it's just that I want to be better because
I want to be the best possible teammate for my
dog. Yeah. Right. That's important to say that.
Yeah. Yeah, that's the goal is like my dog's
doing their job like I need to do mine like it
is a team sport. And that's why I do get frustrated
with people with reading their dog. It's not
that I get frustrated that they're struggling
with it. It's that I want I get frustrated if
they're not trying to improve at it because it's
not fair to the dog. Exactly. And if you don't.
Most dogs, like Zaina one time, she found a hide.
And I don't know, for some reason, I was like
at the very beginning in a lesson. And I don't
know, for whatever reason, I forgot it was there.
I thought it was somewhere else. And I'm like,
so I just stood there like a moron. And I'm like
looking at the instructor like, wait, it's there?
And Zaina's like, rah, rah, rah. And she like
pause at where it is. And she looks at me like,
dumbass, I said it's right there. I'm like, all
right, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Here's your cookie.
And we move on, right? The problem is most dogs
would then start to go, oh, shoot, they'll get
upset. They'll suggest themselves. They'll get
worried. They'll get nervous. They'll lose confidence.
Any number of things, right? Most dogs are not
like Zaina. So therefore I'm creating a problem
because I'm not doing my job. Yeah. So that's
why, and like with Zesty, Zesty does get insecure.
He does get worried. He does get unsure. He does
sometimes get overwhelmed. So, and I figured
some of that out, like the hard way, like after
he displayed the same. behavior many, many times.
And I'm like, oh, Jesus, buddy, I'm sorry. I've
been misreading this like a whole bunch of times
and I feel terrible. So that should be our motivator.
Yeah. To take this extra time to learn how to
read our dogs better, to analyze the data and
so on, because it's it's our job as our teammate.
Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. A
hundred percent. All right. So I think that's
a good place to stop. I think maybe the next
episode we can talk about some specific behaviors.
Yeah. And so on. But I think this is a good place
for people to start. I know it's where I'm going
to start, where I've started personally. And
where I told Carl to start and where I'm going
to tell some of my students to start. And I'm
also hopeful over time, maybe with some feedback
from different students, I'd like to start coming
up with kind of like a formula for like to help
people follow so that they can learn to read
their dog better. I don't know, did that even
make sense, what I just said? This is me, like,
still, like, in the, like, beginner stages of
just, like, trying to figure it out. I love it.
I think it's great. Okay. Good. Thanks, everybody.
Thanks. Bye.