Process or End Product, is it a question of attitude?

    As a dog trainer, I am often struck by how much easier it is to teach dogs than it is to teach people.  People are so very hard to train.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about how best to teach humans.  I really think a lot about the different ways people learn to get across my message.  How many different inputs can I give them?  How can I quickly assess the style that works best for the student.  How can I have a broad stroke approach for a group of people?  How do I deal with a student who actively resists what I am teaching?  How do I tailor my message to sway the resistant?  Maybe I think too much about this...I should just use puppy dog eyes to sway the humans...

Sway, begging you to listen & giving "the look".

    One of the great things about gaining a little knowledge about dog training is that you think you know a lot.  And in some ways, that's very true, if you know a little more than someone else, you are more knowledgeable.  A friend and I were chatting recently about how much we THOUGHT we knew during our twenties and thirties and how much we now know WE DON'T KNOW at the ripe old age of let's just say, over 45ish.  I did know some stuff when I started volunteering to teach classes, but the education I got from teaching what little I did know...priceless.  All the books, classes, seminars, and personal experience you have only kinda help when you have to stand in front of a human and actually teach.

    I quickly learned to read the humans, the puzzled faces, the people attempting to go thru the motions when they only kinda understand, the questions, those who confront you, or those who build walls rather than try.  I naively didn't realize that people could be highly invested in their dog being a BAD dog.  Or a STUPID dog.  Or a STUBBORN dog.  It never occured to me that people would want to blame the dog because they didn't want to feel inadequate as a human.  I get that human trait now, but I also don't get that concept personally.  Certainly some issues can seem too daunting to overcome.  Label it impossible and it 100% is.   

    So back to this Process vs. End Product shit Jayne. Seriously, I ramble, it's a problem.  I was at my gym, fighting the good fight to remain upright.  My trainer and assorted buddies were talking about University of Iowa Women's basketball phenom Caitlin Clark and I had to tell them about my half time demo experience.  We did a flyball demo at the half time of a Iowa Hawkeye Men's and Women's basketball game.  I had a liasion who told us when to go in and out as the set up, demo and tear down has to happen in about 8 minutes.  The men's game was pretty chill, half filled arena.  Once the half time buzzer rang, the guys walked off the court.  When it was all over they meandered back.  The very next night, the women's game was popping!  My liason was like okay, just so you know the women are going to move much quicker on and off the court.  When half time is over they'll be running back onto the court.  It was indeed a different game.  A full arena of screaming fans. Caitlin & crew were killing it.  When the buzzer rang, the women moved quickly off the court.  We did our thing and then they came running back onto the court.  I was struck by the difference in attitude.  The women's team was killing it, they played so intensely, and then they hustled on and off.  The men played basketball and they walked on and off.  No hurry.  No urgency.  Mentally I thought, wow, that difference right there is mind blowing. 

My trainer, super cool dude Brendon, was like yup, that says everything.  The sport fans in our small group launched into a discussion about the sporty differences between the Men's and Women's coaching styles etc and Brendon noted that some of it is just men vs women and their overall trainability.  He's spent a lot of time as a strength trainer for high school athletes and he said the girls will ask if they are doing the parts of an exercise correctly, and the boys will be focusing on the end product of how much they can lift.  He noted that the few boys who  focused on the process had far better gains than the other boys.  The girls had better gains as a whole.  Now I've definitely noticed gender differences in dog training classes.  Not all guys, but many are impatient, they don't want to do the small things, they'll try to do the BIG LIFT with their dog before they are ready.  Sigh.  I mostly assumed they didn't respect me as a woman trainer, telling them what to do.  Now I'm thinking maybe it's more complicated.

Do you even lift Brah? - Pixar

Why is this relevant to anything?  Well, while doing single leg glut bridges, I had the epiphany that I am 100% about the process of training.  About mastering all the steps right along the way.  While we all value the end product of whatever training behavior, the process is vitally important to me.  I thought I was just very detail oriented and persnickety.  My lesson plans focus on trying to getting people to work the process with their dog.  I have tried to condense things down for non training nerd consumption. It's a struggle because I have so very many more details I could put into each lesson.  It can feel like a battle to get people to understand and value the opportunity to work on the process pieces.  I suppose in some ways, it's an overall attitude.  Are you slowly walking toward the end product or are you purposefully putting effort into every step in the process to get the end product?  Do you push for the end product, that BIG LIFT vs making sure the process was clean and productive?  Do you have confidence that you can do more than just that 1 BIG LIFT?  

In dog training what is the BIG LIFT?  What about all those other muscles and moves.  Flexibility, functional movements, versatility, and endurance.  What else can you do?  Are you confident that your dog can do more than just the BIG LIFT?  What about with additional challenges, with extra competiton, travel, noise, adversity, stressed out tired humans?  I know that I want to give my dog's everything in training. To practice every possible scenario our dogs might face.  I want to personally give it my all when competing and look at challenges as a positive thing.  Something I want to tackle.  I am not walking slowly off court and slowly back on court.

Here's some video of Caitlin discussing her process to get that end product: 

As Caitlin said...she practices making those long shots, she had to get strong enough to make those shots, she has been investing in the process to get to this end product.  And in spite of being a phenomenal athlete, with plenty of ego and accolades, she could have walked slowly off court to the roar of 15,000 Hawkeye fans.  That same person who out scored everyone the night of that half time demo, was hustling off court and back on because the process is as important as the end product, and your attitude towards both is everything.