Does unwanted behavior = bad behavior??

Here are some more thoughts from Mark Rashid's book, "Whole Heart, Whole Horse."

"A lot of folks look at unwanted behavior what a horse offers on the first day as bad behavior. But if we understand that horses can't separate the way they feel from the way they act, then we can start to see that unwanted behavior isn't bad behavior at all. More times than not, it's just the horse expressing the way he feels at that particular moment in time. He's just giving us information, that's all. How we perceive that information dictates how we respond to it. Most of the time we perceive the behavior as being bad, so respond to it badly. If we see it as the horse just trying to tell us something, then it's just a matter of distinguishing the importance of what he's saying. It is a matter of importance. The one thing that the horse wanted to do was the single most important thing in his life at that given time. Not being able to do it and, in fact, not having ever been able to do it, can cause the house so much stress that he can't function."

I think that what I need to do, maybe all of us at some point in time, need to sit back and just realize that there is something causing this particular behavior that our dogs are offering. That they aren't trying to be bad.

Another quote:
"I have been witness to an interesting phenomenon over the years when it comes to how a lot of folks perceive different kinds of horse behavior. In short, people seem to lump most behavior into three categories: good behavior (the kind of behavior we), bad behavior (the kind we don't like), and worrisome behavior (the kind that causes us to worry but we don't do anything about).
Now the interesting thing is while some folks, perhaps unconsciously, compartmentalize these behaviors as separate things and thus respond to them differently, to me they are actually all one thing. Put simply, all these behaviors are nothing more or less than information the horse is offering. A horse that offers us "good" behavior is simply telling us he's okay with what's going on at that particular moment in his life. A horse that's offering up "bad" behavior is telling us there's a problem, sometimes a major one that needs to be addressed. A horse that is offering up "worrisome" behavior is telling us he doesn't understand something and is struggling with it.
We humans have a tendency to take advantage of good behavior; in other words, we don't give the good things horses do much thought because it's what we expect. Conversely, we have a tendency to look at "bad" behavior in a relatively adversarial way, primarily because "bad" behavior scares us, we we often deal with it in a defensive manner and without really giving much thought to the cause. When it comes to "worrisome" behavior, we have a tendency to completely over-think it, which often causes us to become ineffective in dealing with it in the first place."

An interesting concept, to not label things that animals do as a behavior, but as a response to something.

Quote:
"If this is the case, then any behavior a horse offers, good, bad or indifferent, falls under one category: the horse supplying information about how he feels. So if we can replace the word "behavior" with the word "information," then we're talking about the horse offering good information, bad information, or indifferent information."

I strive to take what the dogs are doing and why they are doing it as information and not so much a good or bad behavior. It is difficult at times as it is so easy to fall back into thinking that that this is a behavior. I will continue to strive to think of things as information that my dog is giving me.

Mistakes are only mistakes if we don't learn something from them

I have been reading a book by a horse trainer, Mark Rashid, that has really gotten me to thinking about a lot of things. The book is "Whole Heart, Whole Horse." I have really have enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for something to read this winter. I find so many things that horse trainers say and do can also apply to training/working sheepdogs.

His very first chapter deals with mistakes and are they really mistakes?
Here are a good couple of paragraphs:

"A lot of folks tend to think of making a "mistake," particularly when it comes to working with horses, as a bad thing, something that we may not be able to recover from. Yet if we turn that thought just a little bit on its side, it doesn't take long to understand that not only are mistakes part of life, but a lot of good can also come from them, if only we let it. The problem is, for some, just the simple thought of making a mistake can be enough to paralyze them into a state of inactivity and perpetual fear of the unknown.
Along those same lines, I think it is also important to understand that very few things in life are all good, and very few things in life are all bad. The same fire that warms our house can also burn down a forest. The same water that can flood a town can also bathe a baby. Electricity can cook a man's food, but it can also cook the man."

To me we can all make mistakes, it's what we do afterward that really determines if they are a mistake or a learning experience. Basically, if you learned something from it, then it wasn't a mistake.

And another quote from the book:
"Granted, nobody likes to make harmful mistakes, particularly when it comes to working with a horse. Yet on the other other side of that coin, if you are going to do anything well, some mistakes are inevitable along the way. Oddly enough, it has been my experience that those folks who have accepted mistakes as part of life often seem to make the least number of mistakes overall. By comparison, folks who don't want to make any mistakes, and in fact try to go out of their way to avoid making them, are often the ones who end up having the most problems."

Interesting that he finds that those who expect mistakes to be part of life and training seem to make the least amount of mistakes. So, guys, mistakes are not all bad.

Some more:
"What a lot of folks don't understand, is the the vast majority of unwanted behavior in horses is only as bad as we make it out to be. It usually looks much worse than it really is. As a result, the behavior has a tendency to frighten us, mostly because we don't understand it and often we don't know what to do about it. When this type of behavior shows up in a horse, we somehow believe we have already made a mistake of some kind with him or he wouldn't be acting that way. As a result, we don't want to make another mistake, and so we do nothing at all.
You see, following this way of thinking, we are only looking at the problem and not looking for the solution. Yet not only is the solution so often right in front of us, but the "mistake" we made that got the horse into that mindset is more than likely the one thing that holds the key to resolving the unwanted behavior in the first place!"

So, don't dwell on what you did wrong to get you into this in the first place, but strive to figure out a solution to help your dog.

And here is a good one to end the chapter on:

"I believe a mistake in the training or handling a horse isn't wrong, either. A "mistake" just doesn't get the result we were expecting; it does, however, get a result. If we didn't get the result we were looking for, we try again. We need to remember what the horse offers in response to our request is simply information--nothing more, nothing less. It's not good or bad, it just is. The response to a request is simply a compass pointing us in the direction we should be traveling. It's not the end; it's often just the beginning. What we do next, not what we just did, will determine whether or not we make forward progress.
In the end, it could be that the mistakes we (whether in horsemanship or in life) are nothing more than opportunities...opportunities just waiting for a time and place to show themselves. And besides, if we learn something from them, then perhaps they aren't mistakes anyway."

So, nothing in life is a mistake. We can learn from everything, good or bad, on this journey we call life. So, we all need to learn to not be so afraid to make a mistake. I know that I will strive to learn from my mistakes in training/working my dogs and in my life.

Some more pictures from the great sheep move

I wanted to share the links to two other blogs for the other two gals who were along to help with move.

http://bcreese.blogspot.com/2010/12/real-work-for-working-dogs.html

http://fulltiltbordercollies.blogspot.com/2010/12/sheep-moving-party.html


I will say it again, it was great fun and thank you, Loretta and Sarah for coming along to help.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvfGNSR2isA&feature=related


I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season. Enjoy your families.

December Blizzard/Snow Storm of 2010

We got hit with a snow storm yesterday. It left behind 20 inches of snow in 24 hours. This is a drift on the south side of the house.

This is Steve showing just how high the drift is.

Cash and Jet in front of the garage showing how there is no driveway.

Stryker following Steve into the snow as he is wondering what Dad is up to.

And he got rewarded with some loving from Steve.

Steve and some of the dogs heading back up to the house.

Snow drifted on the north side of the barn.

How it looks going back up to the house.

There should be a driveway there just to the right of the fence post.

This is what greeted me as I opened the garage door this morning.

And yes, there is a porch under all of that snow.

Snow drifts by the house.

Snow drifts on the north side of the driveway.

Snow drifts on the way down to the barn.