Sundays with TEAM-K9 are usually filled with dogs progressing and humans learning, with lots of laugher, and chatting between the handlers. But there are also days where the pieces just don’t quite fall into place; the dogs are off, the handlers are off and training is not as progressive as usual.
These “off” days can be frustrating but often times they are the days when the most learning happens, these are the days when patience is taught. This past Sunday was one of those “off” days, where patience by trainer Glen Ramcharan, the handlers and the dogs is what keeps what could be a frustrating day, one where knowledge is still gained.
My grandfather raced standard bred horses and in one particular interview he did he stated, “Patience is the secret”. He was referring to horses, but this brilliant three word statement couldn’t be truer when it comes to dog training as well.
A great dog and handler team is built by many things, but one of the most often overlooked is repetition. It takes hundreds to thousands of repetitions to get an exercise to be at a level near perfection. This is something that can’t be achieved without patience.
Patience in dog training allows these “off”days such as Sunday to help show not only how much work is left to be done, but also how much work has been accomplished. These are the days I look at my dog Madden and see how far patience has brought us in training with TEAM-K9.
Patience IS the secret, to more things than just dog training, but in my experience, dogs teach us the most about patience.