Building success from failure

Failure is such a dirty word. Every time we hear “you failed” our brains have a short circuit and die. It’s like in school when you get that big “D” on a test, you want to walk in a corner and hide. Our brains are just not programed to fail.

I see so many owners think they have failed with their dog. The other day I received a phone call from an owner asking for help, her dog just couldn’t shut its brain off when a ball was involved in the picture. The owner asked me what I thought could or should be done with the dog. They were thinking the dog just needed a bit more mental exercise. As we chatted a bit more and I asked a few more questions and the owner had an “Ah hah” moment. She started realizing that it was just the ball that brought to her attention the behaviors that she was not liking the dog was doing. It was not the ball its self-causing the issue. The moral to the story she could have got upset but took the failure of her not training her dog and turned it around into a lesson of learning. Now she has goals on how to solve the problems.

Owners feel that when their dog does not listen to them they have failed. Instead of giving up and feeling as if we have failed our dog we should look at it as an opportunity to improve and polish a skill.

The next time your dog doesn’t come when they are called don’t get upset and mad. Look at it as an opportunity to make it better. Turn your failure into success.

Success in dog training can come in many forms. It doesn’t always mean you take a failed attempt of your training and turning it into success. Try these 5 simple steps to make your training a success.

• Take 5 minutes a day to work on one skill your dog needs improving on
• Look at any skills your dog doesn’t do correctly as a new avenue in your training plan
• Having a training plan when you go train your dog
• Taking your training into the real world
• Always smile!