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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Foundation's podcast. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about putting yourself

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Speaker 1: in a position to watch talented dogs and trainers do

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Speaker 1: their thing and why this can help all of us

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Speaker 1: level up. I know this episode probably seems pretty obvious

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Speaker 1: on the surface. If you witness good dogs and skilled trainers,

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Speaker 1: you'll understand what dogs and people are capable of. But

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Speaker 1: it's not enough to acknowledge that. It takes more. I

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Speaker 1: know in my life, when I've been exposed to people

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Speaker 1: who could do something I can do only way, way better,

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Speaker 1: it has always changed my perspective. This goes for the

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Speaker 1: outdoor stuff, playing guitar or running, just about anything I've

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Speaker 1: thought I was pretty good at until I saw someone

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Speaker 1: who was actually pretty good at it. Now It's no

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Speaker 1: different in the world of dogs, which is what I'm

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Speaker 1: going to talk about right now. You've probably heard of

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Speaker 1: a fella named Machiavelli, or at least heard the Termkivellian

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Speaker 1: thrown around in conversations about politics, which I won't get

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Speaker 1: into here because I like I'm guessing every one of

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Speaker 1: you is just so tired of having that shit interjected

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Speaker 1: into our lives NonStop under the guise of being informed,

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Speaker 1: but mostly under the pretense of selling adspace on digital platforms.

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Speaker 1: Macchiavelli was born five hundred and fifty six years ago

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Speaker 1: in Italy, when the world was a much different place.

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Speaker 1: He was a diplomat and historian, philosopher, and an author

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Speaker 1: who came to be known for his works regarding political science, which,

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Speaker 1: fun fact, is what my college degree is in and

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Speaker 1: has been about as useful to my life as a

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Speaker 1: ten foot unicycle would be. The interesting thing about Machiavelli

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Speaker 1: is that his name has become synonymous with shady and

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Speaker 1: unscrupulous political maneuvering. It's interesting because even back in the

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Speaker 1: late fourteen hundreds and early fifteen hundreds, he observed that

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Speaker 1: the more politically savvy members of society, you know, the

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Speaker 1: ones who seemed to be able to make things happen,

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Speaker 1: whether viewed right or wrong, weren't what you'd call super

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Speaker 1: ethical folks. He called it as he saw it, I guess,

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Speaker 1: and actually, according to some historians and their interpretations, encouraged it.

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Speaker 1: Now was he nefarious and just like the slithery of

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Speaker 1: politicians he encouraged to keep snaking their way into higher

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Speaker 1: positions of power and more enrichment for themselves. Maybe there

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Speaker 1: is a good case to be made for that argument,

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Speaker 1: but he was also commenting on human nature and he

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Speaker 1: didn't sugarcoat it. He saw what needed to be done

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Speaker 1: in those roles, and he clearly didn't think that there

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Speaker 1: was a better, more wholesome way. It's ironic that five

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Speaker 1: centuries ago the politicians of the time were perceived largely

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Speaker 1: as the politicians are today. And you know, you wouldn't

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Speaker 1: call that perception flattering, just as you wouldn't call it

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Speaker 1: flattering if someone accused you of being Machiavellian at work

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Speaker 1: or in your relationship or whatever, because you can rest

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Speaker 1: assured that it probably was not a compliment. Human nature

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Speaker 1: is pretty wild and understanding. It is way beyond the

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Speaker 1: scope of this mid level outdoor writer. But I will

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Speaker 1: say this. I think about one of his quotes, A

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Speaker 1: lot which goes. A sign of intelligence is an awareness

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Speaker 1: of one's own ignorance. Think about how quickly in society

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Speaker 1: we go from being experts in whatever hot button issue

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Speaker 1: is raging through our collective minds, and how we really

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Speaker 1: only have surface level knowledge of most things. I recently

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Speaker 1: listened to someone who I happen to be married to,

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Speaker 1: who has a doctorate. By the way, explain the space program,

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Speaker 1: you know, NASA, and she interjected a little SpaceX talk

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Speaker 1: in there, and while I was listening, my eggshell brain

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Speaker 1: nearly cracked. I'm a space geek, and so as I listened,

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Speaker 1: I was mildly blown away by how many times she

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Speaker 1: filled into blanks with absolute horseshit. It was one of

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Speaker 1: the best moments in my life to be able to

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Speaker 1: be the dbag who goes, actually, this is blah blah blah.

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Speaker 1: One's own ignorance comes in many forms, and we look

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Speaker 1: at it like it's a negative, because it's not really

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Speaker 1: a positive to be ignorant, I guess. But we can

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Speaker 1: soften that language up by saying, you don't know what

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Speaker 1: you don't know, and all of us don't know a

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Speaker 1: whole lot of stuff, most stuff, I'd say, when it

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Speaker 1: comes to dogs, there is an awful lot all of

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Speaker 1: us don't know. And that is a category that is

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Speaker 1: ripe for filling in the blanks. We do it all

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Speaker 1: the time. I recently saw a thread on dogs and

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Speaker 1: the poster casually made the claim that great Danes are

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Speaker 1: way better dogs than the Labrador retrievers. Now, maybe I

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Speaker 1: took that too personally, like if someone casually said Justin

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Speaker 1: Bieber is a better musician than Johnny Cash ever was.

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Speaker 1: But it's also just a silly statement. The sample size

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Speaker 1: used to make that claim was the ownership of one

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Speaker 1: lab at one point and a great dan and at

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Speaker 1: another point. Well, that's great, but there are a lot

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Speaker 1: of dogs out there, and a lot of trainers, and

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Speaker 1: a lot of situations where that statement would just be

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Speaker 1: patently false but also kind of unprovable since quote unquote

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Speaker 1: good dog is a great intangible Now, what I do

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Speaker 1: know is this, and I believe this in my heart

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Speaker 1: of hearts. Since we don't know a lot about dogs

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Speaker 1: and how to get them to do what we want,

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Speaker 1: one of the best ways to get there is by

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Speaker 1: putting yourself in a position to see dogs in action

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Speaker 1: and trainers who are more talented than you doing their thing.

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Speaker 1: And on that last note, let me say this, you

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Speaker 1: don't have to suddenly bombard your local pro trainers with

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Speaker 1: requests to observe their work on a daily basis. They

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Speaker 1: won't let you, probably, And that's not where I'm going

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Speaker 1: with this now, As an aside, if you do have

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Speaker 1: a pro trainer who will let you watch, you damn

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Speaker 1: well should watch. That will be an education worse that

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Speaker 1: every single time. But instead, what I mean is to

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Speaker 1: figure out ways to watch someone who is just better

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Speaker 1: than you. Now, there are two parts to this that

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Speaker 1: I have to tease out. I promise you that if

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Speaker 1: you're listening to this podcast, there are people who are

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Speaker 1: better at training dogs than you. I also promise you

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Speaker 1: that it's easy to give the dogs most of the

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Speaker 1: credit when it comes to observing great dog behavior. But

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Speaker 1: there is no great dog without the right training. It

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Speaker 1: just doesn't really happen. They can be chock full of

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Speaker 1: amazing genetic potential, but without someone to coax it out

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Speaker 1: and mold it into something really special, it just really

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Speaker 1: doesn't happen. Now, a shitty trainer could make something out

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Speaker 1: of a gifted dog, but you don't see something really

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Speaker 1: amazing without the good dog and the good trainer combo.

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Speaker 1: So here's the thing. It's mostly a matter of getting

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Speaker 1: over our own egos. Now, I'm talking mostly to the

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Speaker 1: men in the crowd here, of which I'm one of them.

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Speaker 1: You might think that you have a great handle on

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Speaker 1: your ga and that you have the whole thing sussed out,

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Speaker 1: But there's always something to learn. Look for those opportunities

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Speaker 1: in your life. Now, you might just know someone who

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Speaker 1: is ahead of you and the race and who understands

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Speaker 1: dogs better. Great, figure out a way to watch them

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Speaker 1: in action, train with them, or have them watch you

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Speaker 1: in action. That's simple stuff and it can be very

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Speaker 1: meaningful when you're trying to level yourself up or level

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Speaker 1: up your dog. Now, maybe you don't know anyone like that.

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Speaker 1: Look around. Is there a local training group you can attend.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you can find a field trial or a hunt

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Speaker 1: test in your neck of the woods to watch. Some

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Speaker 1: trainers offer handler workshops, and while they won't be free,

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Speaker 1: they will be worth the price of admission. There are

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Speaker 1: online courses for training that are great too. There are

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Speaker 1: a lot of ways to skin this cat. But the

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Speaker 1: truth is it just takes some effort to try to

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Speaker 1: find someone or some way to watch someone truly work

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Speaker 1: dogs that is better than you. And I'll say this too,

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Speaker 1: if you go this route, there are benefits to finding

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Speaker 1: someone who works with your breed, but that's not the

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Speaker 1: end of the conversation. Sure, if you run wire hairs,

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Speaker 1: it would be nice to hang out with someone who

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Speaker 1: really knows how to handle wire hairs, but that's often

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Speaker 1: upper level training. When you step back and forget breeds

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Speaker 1: for a second, as long as you stick to the

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Speaker 1: working or sporting dogs category, you realize that dog behavior

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Speaker 1: isn't wildly different from breed to breed. At some level,

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Speaker 1: you know, dogs are just dogs, and there's a lot

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Speaker 1: to learn at that level, and I'd argue it's probably

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Speaker 1: more important for most people to learn about dog behavior

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Speaker 1: generally than breed specific behavior. The key to all of

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Speaker 1: this is to find a way to watch or work

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Speaker 1: with someone who understands the game better than you. What

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Speaker 1: this does is give you a chance to understand the

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Speaker 1: little details so the whole thing isn't overwhelming, Which brings

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Speaker 1: me back to the point I was trying to make

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Speaker 1: earlier about great dogs and how we give them all

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Speaker 1: of the credit. Look at it this way. If you

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Speaker 1: eat a piece of an amazing cake, you know, one

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Speaker 1: that is just freaking delicious, you might think that it

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Speaker 1: had everything to do with the ingredients, and you don't

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Speaker 1: get an amazing, freaking delicious cake without the right ingredients.

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Speaker 1: But those ingredients alone need someone to turn them into

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Speaker 1: a cake, and there is a skill level there that

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Speaker 1: transcends just possessing the right eggs and flour and sugar

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Speaker 1: and whatever else goes into the cake. There's a baker

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Speaker 1: there somewhere who knows what to do with that stuff.

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Speaker 1: When we get overwhelmed by training or see a dog

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Speaker 1: that has just been trained super well, it's easy to

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Speaker 1: believe the dog has just kind of always been a

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Speaker 1: rock star and it's the dog, not the trainer, who

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Speaker 1: deserves the credit. But that's silly, because there isn't one

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Speaker 1: without the other. And to push this analogy a little further,

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Speaker 1: a great baker could do pretty well with mediocre ingredients,

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Speaker 1: but you put together an amateur baker with low quality ingredients,

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Speaker 1: and that cake is going to suck donkey clackers. Before

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Speaker 1: I move on from this, I want to say one

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Speaker 1: more thing. There are a lot of ways to find

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Speaker 1: someone better than you at training, or someone who just

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Speaker 1: has a different approach. I have people all of the

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Speaker 1: time come up to me in the summer when I'm

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Speaker 1: working my dogs, and many of them have dogs themselves.

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Speaker 1: I approach people quite often too, at least if they

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Speaker 1: look like they know what they're doing. How they take

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Speaker 1: the bumper from their dogs, or how steady their dogs

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Speaker 1: are or whatever are all clues into what they do

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Speaker 1: that might work for you, And it's important stuff keep

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Speaker 1: an eye out for opportunities to interact with someone better

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Speaker 1: than you at dog training. Maybe that's the best way

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Speaker 1: to put it, And maybe this whole thing could have

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Speaker 1: been one line instead of nineteen hundred words about Italian

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Speaker 1: authors no where cares about. It's too late for that now.

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Speaker 1: On the dog front, watching a great dog work through

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Speaker 1: a long distance or tree or hand signals or triple

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Speaker 1: blind retrieves, or sit stock still while someone else walks

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Speaker 1: a dog past them, or I don't know, a pair

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Speaker 1: of Canadian honkers grazes the grass twenty feet away. That

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Speaker 1: does something for us too. Now, right away, we generally think, man,

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Speaker 1: I wish I could have a dog like that, as

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Speaker 1: if that dog is unavailable to most average people, as

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Speaker 1: if those specific types of bloodlines are available to only

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Speaker 1: people who know the secret knock or you know who

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Speaker 1: put on cloaks and masks and meet once a month

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Speaker 1: under the full moon to pray to the tree, gods

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Speaker 1: or whatever. That dog is available to you, and seeing

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Speaker 1: it work is all the evidence you should need. That's

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Speaker 1: the thing about this stuff. It's often just motivation to

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Speaker 1: figure out our own dog lives better. What I mean

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Speaker 1: by that is we get locked into a breed or

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Speaker 1: a type of dog, and that's fine, but we also

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Speaker 1: on intentionally install sort of like a mental ceiling around

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Speaker 1: that breed or our training abilities or that type of dog.

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Speaker 1: We think, well, my uncle has always had Goldens, and

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Speaker 1: I love them, so I'm going to get a golden,

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Speaker 1: and then that dog will go about as far as

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Speaker 1: our uncle's dog did, which might not be that far

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Speaker 1: because we don't know what we don't know. But then

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Speaker 1: you get to see a field bred golden that has

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Speaker 1: tons of good blood in him, and he's been under

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Speaker 1: the tutelage of a great trainer for five years, and

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Speaker 1: you see that dog can do just about anything that

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Speaker 1: a good working dog can do. And there are also

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Speaker 1: plenty of rumors about how good the dog is at

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Speaker 1: finding pheasants and making them fly well within shotgun range,

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Speaker 1: or about sitting in a duck blind in the freezing

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Speaker 1: cold to retrieve greenhead after greenhead with just perfect marks.

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Speaker 1: That might seem beyond most of us and our dogs,

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Speaker 1: but it's not, and the first step to getting there

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Speaker 1: is understanding that it's even possible in the first place,

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Speaker 1: and the best way to understand that is to just

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Speaker 1: see with your own eyes. Every year in August up

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Speaker 1: here in the northern part of the Twin Cities there

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Speaker 1: is an event called the game Fare. They run like

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Speaker 1: fifty thousand people and their dogs through on two different

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Speaker 1: long weekends, and it's something worth seeing if you really

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Speaker 1: like dogs. There are all kinds of time trials and

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Speaker 1: dock jumping events and things that people can enter their

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Speaker 1: dogs into to test their skills. Now, if you watch them,

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Speaker 1: and I've watched hundreds of them over the years, you

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Speaker 1: see a wide breakdown in dog skills and handler ability.

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Speaker 1: Most dogs aren't very good at most of the events.

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Speaker 1: There is the chaos of the fair, which definitely influences

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Speaker 1: some dogs because it's distraction central. But you do see

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Speaker 1: dogs that can tune out everything and just perform like

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Speaker 1: they're supposed to, like it's their job, and they stand

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Speaker 1: out because they aren't common. Most of the dogs either

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Speaker 1: fall apart completely or at least partially, but maybe I

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Speaker 1: don't know. Five percent of them are just solid in

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Speaker 1: their skills and they not coincidentally, all seem to be

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Speaker 1: handled by people with an air of confidence who clearly

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Speaker 1: understand how to get dogs to do what they want

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Speaker 1: them to do. It's kind of a thing of beauty,

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Speaker 1: and it's easy to not really understand until you're sitting

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Speaker 1: there watching the whole thing play out. And speaking of easy,

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Speaker 1: it would be easy to watch one of these events

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Speaker 1: at the game fair and pay close attention to the

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Speaker 1: superstar dogs and just be dismissive about it, to fill

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Speaker 1: in the blanks and say you don't have the time

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Speaker 1: or the motivation to try to get a dog to

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Speaker 1: do that whatever level it is, Hey, that's fine, but

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Speaker 1: knowing that dog exists and that you could actually have

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Speaker 1: it is super important. It's kind of like being friends

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Speaker 1: with a bunch of people who don't exercise, and then

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Speaker 1: one of them goes on a health kick and changes

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Speaker 1: their body, and when you see them, you realize that

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Speaker 1: they were static in your head, all of you and

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Speaker 1: that friend group were sort of uniform in your design.

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Speaker 1: But then one of them just breaks the mold and

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Speaker 1: you realize that the only thing between you and that

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Speaker 1: is well you. A great dog can show you that,

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Speaker 1: and so can a great trainer, And if you watch

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Speaker 1: a combo of the two, you'll see something kind of

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Speaker 1: close to watching professional sports. It might be just a

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Speaker 1: bit too unrelatable to sync in, but you're not trying

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Speaker 1: out to be a cornerback in the NFL. Here, you're

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Speaker 1: working with a dog and you have access to all

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Speaker 1: the knowledge necessary to get that dog to level up

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Speaker 1: and to force yourself to level up as a dog trainer.

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Speaker 1: Oftentimes it only takes exposure to good dogs and people

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Speaker 1: who are just better than you. And I'll say this again,

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Speaker 1: who do not have to be professional trainers? Think about

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Speaker 1: it this way. The motivation to be better on its

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Speaker 1: own is worth this effort. But what if you figure

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Speaker 1: out a better way to address your dog when you're

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Speaker 1: issuing a command. But if you see one drill that

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Speaker 1: just helps a dog make better choices, and you realize

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Speaker 1: you could easily teach your dog that drill, and then

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Speaker 1: once you do, your dog is going to be way

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Speaker 1: better off for it. I had a pro trainer one

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Speaker 1: time who I was photographing. He watched me take a

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Speaker 1: bumper from one of his dogs, just a simple move

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Speaker 1: I've done one hundred thousand times in my life. He

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Speaker 1: walked over and said, next time, position your hand this

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Speaker 1: way and let the dog give it to you. The

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Speaker 1: change was mostly really subtle, but also just a better

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Speaker 1: way to do things that one little, seemingly kind of

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Speaker 1: insignificant tip. It changed how I handle dogs in a

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Speaker 1: small but meaningful way. And that's what I want to

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Speaker 1: leave you with on this We look at the big

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Speaker 1: picture and decide it's too much work or it's just

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Speaker 1: too far beyond what we can handle. But with dogs

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Speaker 1: and how we work with them, it's the little stuff

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Speaker 1: that stacks up over time to create a better product.

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Speaker 1: You don't have to go from knowing nothing to collecting

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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of first place where ribbons at field trials.

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Speaker 1: You just have to try to be better and that

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Speaker 1: will come in baby steps that can be ushered along

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Speaker 1: by facilitating some ways to be around good dogs and

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Speaker 1: better handlers. That's really it. So think about that, think

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Speaker 1: about coming back in two weeks because I'm going to

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Speaker 1: talk about positive associations and training and how they are

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Speaker 1: like the secret sauce to keeping your dog happy and

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Speaker 1: motivated to put in the work. That's it. I'm Tony Peterson.

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Speaker 1: This has been the Foundation's podcast. As always, thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for listening. I know you're busy right now.

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Speaker 1: It's finally time to fish in a lot of places

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Speaker 1: and go shoot some turkeys and do a lot of

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Speaker 1: stuff and get out and train your dogs. But if

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Speaker 1: you have some downtime, or you're just interested in maybe

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Speaker 1: a new recipe, maybe you want to live vicariously through

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Speaker 1: one of us and watch a turkey hunting film. Whatever,

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Speaker 1: the medeater dot com has you covered. And by the way,

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Speaker 1: we're starting to put up a lot of dog training

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Speaker 1: articles on there, so if you want to read a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about how to get about better dog

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Speaker 1: or how to make a better dog, you can head

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Speaker 1: over to their to the mediatter dot com and check

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Speaker 1: it out. Thanks again,