12/27/2025
Well, my wife captured another video of us in play/work mode. I take opportunities, that are disguised as play, capture moments to teach. What looks like happenstance is capturing teaching and training moments. The engagement timing is critical. By being engaged and asking for physical/mental engagement, identifying what I am “happy for them” about, and to what level of happy excitement, gives them scale and value. It turns into a training session that the dogs learn, without repetitions of performance.
What happens is the brain associates good things happening with what I ask and agree with. You learn when you are “safe”. That is how the brain works. To be safe in enjoying the moment, with the engagement of others, the “repetitions” become events that the dog wants to repeat because they are enjoying it.
It can be the smallest thing. As a matter of fact, it should include all of the smallest things. That requires you to be engaged and aware of the dog, the environment, and the timing that goes along with all factors involved.
Layering individual elements creates the most complex behaviors that the dog is capable of performing. That “performance” becomes its standard behavior.