Understanding Pressure, Confidence, and Attitude

For every new p, there is an x such that
1/p = c,
when c > x, a = [c^(p)]
when c < x, a = [c/p]
when c = x, a = c
p = pressure
c = confidence
a = attitude
x = coefficient - dog specific

Definitions:
Pressure: Anything that challenges the dog's understanding of the exercise.
Confidence: The dog's willingness to work through the exercise.
Attitude: The dog's demeanor while working through the exercise.

* PRESSURE inversely affects CONFIDENCE. The more PRESSURE is applied to an exercise the lower the dog’s CONFIDENCE will become.

* The goal in training (the dog in question is beyond the teaching phase) is for the dog’s CONFIDENCE to remain high enough that the dog is willing to stick his neck out and attempt the exercise even though he may be under, or may encounter, some PRESSURE.

* A dog that is CONFIDENT enough to work through PRESSURE is willing to try ways to avoid the PRESSURE. Proper use of PRESSURE on an exercise will help the dog understand the exercise better. The dog must feel that he has a good chance of making the right choice in order to maintain CONFIDENCE. A good understanding of the exercise will result in the dog feeling that no matter what PRESSURE is applied he will be able to get out of it. This knowledge greatly increase the dog's CONFIDENCE. This is especially important to remember when showing a dog. The dog must have experienced PRESSURE equal to or greater than what he will face at a show in training, in order for him to show CONFIDENCE when showing. The show should feel EASY to him.

* ATTITUDE is directly related to CONFIDENCE. A dog will have the best ATTITUDE when he is CONFIDENT that what he is doing is correct and appreciated.

* Too much PRESSURE may cause the dog to feel that he is never going to get the exercise right; likewise repeated use of PRESSURE on an exercise where the dog is consistently failing will decrease the dogs CONFIDENCE. A good barometer is not to let the dog fail more than 2 times. If my dog has tried and failed 2 times I make the exercise easier so they can be successful on the third time. Letting a dog continue to fail and fail again will result in the dogs CONFIDENCE decreasing. If the dog’s CONFIDENCE drops too low in response to a given PRESSURE the dog's ATTITUDE will decrease as well. When you are training you must always be conscientious of a dog’s CONFIDENCE level because you never want the dogs ATTITUDE to be effected.

* The dog’s ATTITUDE will start to decrease when the dog’s CONFIDENCE is low enough. When a dog’s ATTITUDE becomes affected the dog will try to find other ways to avoid the PRESSURE (which the dog may now perceive to be the whole exercise or training session). Some dogs quit or shut down (especially if quitting in the past has resulted in either them not having to do the exercise in question, the training session ending, or the exercise being simplified). Other dogs avoid the exercise, they may get goofy or silly, or playful anything they think will please you and result in them not having to face the PRESSURE. Other dogs do nothing, they refuse to work. By doing nothing they hope to avoid the whole situation (they may look away from you or pretend they don't know where they are or what you are saying).

* In order to guard that the dog’s ATTITUDE is not effected by the PRESSURE applied you must always be conscious of which direction the dog’s CONFIDENCE is going. Is it increasing or decreasing? The tipping point can be identified by the moment you see your dog start to make effort errors. Effort errors are when the dog is trying to do the right thing, but even though they know what isn't right, they are not CONFIDENT that they know what is right. When you see this specific type of error you are at, or are approaching the CONFIDENCE tipping point. It is time to offer encouragement and simplify or help as needed, to increase your dog’s CONFIDENCE.

* If you notice that reasonable PRESSURE is immediately causing serious decreases in CONFIDENCE and ATTITUDE problems the dog probably does not completely understand what it is that he is being asked to do, and it is time to go back to teaching the exercise (remember to break the exercise into as many small portions as you need to when you are teaching and to apply no PRESSURE and a lot of encouragement).

* Remember PRESSURE CAN and DOES affect CONFIDENCE. When you start to apply pressure often the dog just sits there staring at the toy thinking "you can't expect me to get the dumbbell when there is a TOY out there! That looks all wrong to me". So his CONFIDENCE has gone DOWN as the PRESSURE has gone up. What you don't want is for his ATTITUDE to ever go down. It is fine for a dog to not be CONFIDENT, or to feel PRESSURE, that should be okay with him. He should stay happy, and willing to work through it (his ATTITUDE should be unaffected). He should know that you will be fair and reasonable and guide him to the right path. In the situation above you would encourage the dog to do the right thing, or help him do it. Than you would move the toy further away, or start with something "less tempting" than a toy, perhaps a person just standing there or a chair. Or you may try to recall him past the toy. As the dog begins to understand "oh I get it! I can and have-to pick up the dumbbell even with a toy out there" his CONFIDENCE will go up.

Now for the next step ... all the above should be represent as a square matrix, and by applying the proper determinant and scalar it can be determined that......