Does speed necessarily follow accuracy?

Accuracy first and then speed.  You hear that a lot. Learn something slowly and then as you get better at it and commit it to memory you will get faster at it.  I was thinking today how this does or does not apply to dog training. For one thing it implies that the person or dog or whoever actually WANTS to perform the exercise faster. This might be true for highly reinforcing exercises where the cause and effect is easy to show the dog. Such as when we teach drug dogs to find narcotics - they get into drug odor and we give them a fight with a tennis ball.  The faster they find the quicker they get the fight.  But what about things that require more precision where we can't have the dog completely overloaded in drive? Or when the exercise is inherently boring?  If the dog can do the exercise at a leisurely pace and still get the reward, why do it fast? Does withholding the reward for only fast performances really speed up the exercise? And if it does, is it because the dog knows to do the exercise faster?

The more I train the less I am convinced that slow becomes fast. I think in more exercises fast rehearsal results in fast performance. I have been teaching Jill to do the AKC Novice Obedience recall exercise. In it she has to hold her stay, trot across the ring and sit in front of me. Sounds simple right?  Not if you are stuck with a handler who insists on going all experimental on her! LOL. I will spare you the tedium of the training process, it takes so much longer to write out than to actual do. Basically I created a heavy "reinforcement zone" in front position without her moving anywhere. I then took a tiny step back and rewarded her for her efforts to seek out the RZ. She got no information from me other than praise and treats in the RZ. Because I establish the RZ before the exercise, the motivation to get there was well established, resulting in a rather "brisk" pace. Similar to our drug dogs - the reward process is established (we pick dogs who are highly reinforced for fight with the ball) before the exercise.  We then show them how to get the reward. If the dog does not know that the reward zone is there, why should they hurry to get there? And then when they do know it is there and have a habit of going there slowly, why start hurrying?

Disclaimer: I am sure I stole the term "reinforcement zone" from someone but I have no idea who.....

Calix says "you wanna recall? I'll give you a recall!!"
"Umm, Calix, you have to stop when you get here....."