Paying Attention - A Lesson From My Dog
By now we’re all aware just how distracted we get by the phones in our hands and pockets, on our tables and desks. I’ve recently made a very deliberate effort to reduce these distractions and found that removing them is the only way to go for me. Paying attention, however, is not something we automatically achieve when we remove distractions. Attention requires focus and willingness.
And that’s where Maggie comes in, our 13 month old Labrador. We’ve been spending a lot of time on Maggie’s training. Mainly obedience but also other skills. And of course it’s fun to teach dogs tricks, especially clever working dogs like the one we’re lucky to have brought into our lives.
How to train a dog
First we as humans have to learn how to teach the trick and then it’s really all about shaping the right behaviours and rewarding them, or spotting certain natural behaviours and rewarding those. (I type this as Maggie drinks loudly from the Christmas tree stand… not a behaviour I encourage, by the way)
For the last couple of days I’ve been working on teaching Maggie to do the puppy pose (front legs extended, head bowed, bum up in the air) on command. This requires a lot of attention from me because first I need to catch her doing the pose naturally so I can reward her right there and then (positive reinforcement). She does this stretch every time she wakes up from a nap. Typically two stretches. I need to be there in time, mark the behaviour with a word and a click and reward with a treat. I have multiple opportunities a day and we started with just a click and treat before introducing the word as well. Once she starts offering the behaviour more often in exchange for a treat, I can try using the command randomly to see if she understands what she's supposed to do.
Dogs make great teachers
What I love about working with Maggie is that she really teaches me a lot. I’ve learned to read her body language, to anticipate behaviours so I can reward the right ones and prevent undesirable ones and it’s been one of the most rewarding things to do. And the reason I share this story here on LinkedIn is because there are lessons in here for all of us.
1?? Firstly, it’s about those around you, be they humans or animals (I assume it’s humans in most cases).
2?? Secondly, it’s about humility and being willing to learn.
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3?? Thirdly, it’s about being a novice every now and then. I never had a dog before and never trained a dog before. It has many ups and some frustrating moments but it’s an entirely new experience for me.
4?? And finally, number four, who can help you along the way? Yes, there’s YouTube and various other online content you can access but let’s not forget about the people around us, especially on this page, who can help us along. We attend weekly classes with Maggie and continue her training at home. A trainer is so helpful in spotting the mistakes we make so we can fix them and learn the right way of doing things so we can be successful with Maggie. I’m a huge fan of working with professional coaches and do so for myself, having worked with a speaker coach (Montana), a running coach (Nicky) and attending an 8-week course on personal finance and investing.
That’s what I wanted to share today and of course this post would not be complete without another picture of Maggie.
I’d love to hear from you
about some of the life lessons you’ve learned and applied in your professional setting and the impact that had on your career.
Leave a comment below.
Managing Technical Consultant (Architecture) Data Services at NTT DATA
2 年This was great to read as coincidentally, I've been thinking about similar things training our now 5 month old beagle ?? One is the power of positive reinforcement - and just like you described it, you need to be there when it matters! Observation over a longer period is key here, so that you end up almost passively picking up on your dog's behavioural patterns and at some point you just kind of know when they're about to do something. I don't know if this will help with humans yet, but it's certainly interesting :) Another one for me has been dealing with frustration ... obviously there are lots of frustrating moments, and I noticed that in my angriest moments, the thing that was making me that angry wasn't my dog, but rather immediately knowing that I screwed up and not them - after all, they're just doing dog things and it's my job to shape their behaviour. Main takeaway: when I feel especially mad at someone, they probably weren't the root cause of the problem ... good for those among us with a volatile temper :)
Founder-In-Progress | Ex-Amazon, TikTok, HP Leader | Business Development & Go-To-Market Strategist
2 年Love the article! One of the important things I learned from my dog is to take a break and relax and enjoy the moment.