Goal Setting
Ok now that you are all here for this year’s academy let’s talk about goal setting.
Why do it?
Keep you more focused on what classes to take or modules to prioritize
Be able to look back on later to see your progress that’s easy to lose sight of
Breaking big behaviors into smaller slices
What not to make it about:
a task list to make you feel pressured
too big it’s overwhelming
a rigid schedule with no flexibility
Check out the link above for a list of questions to help you organize your priorities.
First identify the top 3 things that are issues for you, then think about how frequently each thing on that list happens. Often we top the list with something that only happens once a month and push something down the list that we deal with every day. A good example of this is: we are super troubled when our dog reacts to visitors, but we only have 1 visitor a month if that, and loose leash walking is way down our priority list, but we actually struggle with it every single day. Not that we don’t want to address the reacting to visitors, but things we struggle with every day affect our relationship with our dogs and we want to make sure we work on that daily stuff and not push it aside as it actually affects everything else.
Don’t forget the fun!!!!
If your list is all just about what you don’t like about what your dog does, well that can make training not very fun or motivating for either of you. We need fun things to work on so training itself is more fun for us and the dogs! If your list of what fun things you want to work on is small, back up and fill that list! It matters just as much if not more than “fixing” your dog’s problems.
Look at your list of your dog’s favorite toys/treats:
How many of those toys involve directly interacting with you? If that number is small you need to hit the engagement modules before you go anywhere else. If your dog doesn’t like to play with you, we can train with food for sure, however, if you really want to unlock engagement investing time in play is worth every penny! If your dog is picky about food, and your treat list small (I’m not talking about having to limit due to allergies or health reasons) we need to work on food drive! “My dog isn’t interested in treats” especially when we talk about working on reactivity or anxiety is often a direct sign our dog is already over threshold and we need to understand how to set the stage to bring out that interest in food. So my goal with ANY dog I train is to fill that list of 5 favorite toys (that we can play with together) and 5 favorite treats so I know what my dog likes as these are my tools of motivation!
Avoiding burn out and getting overwhelmed
Keep it to threes.
Don’t try to work more then three things at a time. But know that not all things are a simple thing. So when I talk goal setting with students most will list “reactivity” as a goal. But in actuality reactivity is usually comprised of MANY things! It can be anxiety, fear, frustration, sound sensitivity, separation anxiety, over arousal, prey drive, all mashed into one label. So really that is like adding a dozen things to your list.
So one person might list “Reactivity with dogs” as one subject on their to do list.
My list is going to look a little more like this:
Reactivity when seeing a dog out on a walk on leash
Reactivity when seeing a dog on a walk off leash
Reactivity seeing a dog while in the car when we are driving
Reactivity seeing a dog through the window at home
Reactivity walking past a dog quiet dog in a yard
Reactivity walking past a barking dog in a yard
Reactivity passing a dog while walking on a neighborhood street
Reactivity seeing a dog in a field at the park
Reactivity seeing a dog on a hiking trail
Reactivity passing a dog on a hiking trail
By breaking down all of these different ways the reactivity exists I can tackle each one as it’s own goal, so I might accomplish 6 goals and still not have “fixed” the reactivity, but I have made it a lot better and I am aware of the progress I am actually making when my dog does react to something on the list I have not yet sorted out.
So if I have “dog reactivity” on my list of threes I might have actually added a dozen things and then I wonder why I’m overwhelmed when I add on a few dozen more when I add “separation anxiety” and “sound sensitivity” Those three things are actually more like a hundred behaviors at play.
So we slice these things down into more manageable bite sized pieces.
So your list of three things to work on during Goal setting might be:
dog reactivity
separation anxiety
sound sensitivity
Mine is going to look more like this:
Walking passed a quiet dog in a yard
Being able to leave house for 3 minutes
Desensitize the sound of vacuum cleaner
My list is far more likely to be attainable and by meeting the goals I will gain confidence to set more of them.