Anyone who knows me in real like knows how much I love a good experiment. Having made my science fair debut at age 5, I’ve been on a life-long quest for all kinds of answers. Early highlights include (reworded, obviously): reciprocity of smiling, acidity and plant growth/survival, and of course all the undocumented backyard efforts. Still one of my favorites, was some VERY groundbreaking work I did at age 6-7 into the nature of the male psyche. I wrote and administered a detailed questionaire aimed at answering the urgent question “Why do boys like He-Man?” Amusingly enough, I remember a few of the questions and have been known to still ask them on occasion. More amusing is the fact that the answers given haven’t really changed – don’t misinterpret that to be a bad thing at all, by the way. Guys, if you still want to grow up to be He-Man (I encourage this, but the outfit is questionable), I can suggest a few books/videos, etc. or get with your local RKC or HKC instructor!
So I decided to apply some of the same principles we use in HKC and RKC training to a very excitable 1 year old bull terrier who I am watching for the weekend. She’s a really sweet dog, but gets VERY excited and jumps around, slobbering profusely and if you let her, will mouth the heck out of you and your shoes. Like most dogs, she really wants to make you happy, but she doesn’t necessarily know how or what to do. When I first arrived she was fairly meek and didn’t know what was going on. This gave me a good advantage to establish my leadership and consequentally, set her up for success.
Ideas from HKC/RKC that I’ve been using with the excitable bull terrier:
- Be aware of surroundings (make sure she can’t destroy something!)
- All safety measures all the time (if she gets too wild I make her stop and rest in her crate)
- Focus on quality not quantity (she does well for short periods, so we “quit” before she starts to misbehave)
- Ultimately, if she “fails” it’s my fault as the higher mammal, and since I control more of the environmental factors, I make sure to set her up for success and assume leadership.
- Likewise, being totally consistant with practice works wonders with human and canine skill development.
Like anything it’s good to establish the ground rules and to work on the basics. I made sure she knew “sit” and “down” and established that I go through doors first and that she needs to earn privilages from me. Also when she does something I don’t like – ie: jumping up and slobbering on me, or trying to nip at my shoes, I gave her an alternative behavior like sitting. When she was able to do this more appropriate behavior, she was rewarded. Many times she just wasn’t ready for a changed environment or situation and we would regress to something she knew, and that she could do successfully. These smaller successes have been building her confidence, and further establishing the correct dynamic in our relationship. What does this have to do with kettlebells?! Well – if someone is not quite ready to start swinging a kettlebell (for reasons of mobility, proprioception etc) then it’s a good idea to regress to a step that they can do and then move forward when they’re ready. Building confidence with the hip hinge, deadlifts, wall squats, etc. are things which can be done successfully and which build towards future success. The wrong thing to do would be to practice bad and potentially dangerous swings. Don’t practice mistakes – and be sure to set yourself up for success.
Another interesting idea behind setting the dog up for success is to build her good habits. In my mind, training a dog is like programming a computer – but the way you “save” the program is by writing it over and over and over. In other words, building habits. Our human movement patterns are very much the same way – so it really is important to not practice mistakes and to continually make successes. If you watch me closely, even in a non-training situations, I move the same way as if I am in a gym setting – sometimes it’s even to the point of comedy. But – think of all the times you’ve had a strong weightlifter friend injure themselves outside of the gym by some silly, and even small incorrect movement. It’s almost a cliche, but I’ve known so many people who can deadlift hundreds of pounds, only to go home and get injured because they slumped over to pick a 5lb item off the floor. Good movement habits are important in avoiding injury for sure.
Wish me luck though, I’m covered in doggie slobber!
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