It was an extremely boring drive from Virginia to the Kentucky-Ohio border today. The only interesting part of it was drooling over the horse properties along the interstate while going through Lexington KY. I did get to play good Samaritan for a lady who rolled into the rest stop while I was walking dogs - she didnt just have a flat, her tire was totally shredded. Like my friend Ann point out "once a police officer always a police officer....." Ford btw does a much better job of making their tire changing equipment accessible than does Toyota...
Fortunately for me, I do my best dog training thinking while driving. This is also helped by friends who call and chat while I am driving. I am still on the fence about (hands free) talking and driving. It sure does help pass the time - I just try to confine it to long stretches of interstate driving when traffic is low. One of the things that I was mulling about following today's conversations is how the dogs drive state is often overlooked when we are training. Different venues and tasks require different levels of drive. Competition obedience can be done in a lower drive state that a searching for explosives. And within a venue people also have different preferences for how much drive they want. Lower levels of a sport or activity can often be done in a lower drive state but at higher levels or for more complex tasks the dog needs to be in a higher drive state. The problem is that people often start out teaching early tasks in lower drive and then have to invest time and effort bringing up drive in addition to making the tasks more complex. One of the problems with a lower drive is that although the dog might be able to perform the work, he can be distracted by his environment and this in turn reduces the intensity of the dog's focus on his task. I think it also allows the dog to become bored with the task - especially when it is an inherently slow or methodical task.
Teaching the dog a task in a low level of drive can lead to complications. It is not necessarily a given that the dog's drive will increase as he learns the task. Oftentimes if the dog learns in a low drive state then he continues to perform at that level - the handler's actions can push the drive up temporarily but it often may ebb back to its original state. My preference is to keep the task simple at first and to lay the foundation for the task with the dog in the drive state I want it to be in for higher level, more complex tasks. This is critically important for working dogs - many things beyond the handler's control will decrease the dog's overall level of focus and drive - fatigue, chaos and distractions, handler focusing on other things etc. If the drive is extremely high to begin with then this decrease is less likely and if it does occur the dog still has enough intensity for the task. As far as sport dogs - it also set them up to retain a focus and intensity for higher levels of work. But regardless of whether it is for sport or work I also think it is more fun for the dog, I know it certainly affects my level of enjoyment of training. I recently read a post on a discussion forum where someone pointed out that he does other activities for "fun" and that training dogs for police work was serious business. I guess I am at a loss to see how my enjoying my work will result in a decrease in my dogs' performances? It seems to me that my enjoyment and enthusiasm for the work can only help lay that foundation of the dog coming out to do the work in a heightened drive state. Maybe I will explain to Steel tomorrow that this is serious business and that he and I should not be having so much fun.
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