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

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. In today's episode is all about understanding your

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Speaker 1: dog's attention span and how to use that knowledge to

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Speaker 1: curate a good training strategy. This is a pretty relevant

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Speaker 1: topic today, literally for all of us, because we're in

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Speaker 1: a world that is just constantly trying to grab our attention.

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Speaker 1: More than that later in this podcast, but for now,

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Speaker 1: maybe that will help us empathize with our dogs a

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Speaker 1: little bit and help us try to understand how to

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Speaker 1: work with our pupps to keep them as focused as

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Speaker 1: possible while helping them learn new task during training. This

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Speaker 1: is one of those things that we deal with all

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Speaker 1: the time when it comes to our dogs, but we

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Speaker 1: often don't really consider it. So pay attention because I'm

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Speaker 1: going to cover it right now. You might vaguely remember

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Speaker 1: a study that came out back in twenty fifteen about

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Speaker 1: human attention spans and how they are dwindling. The story,

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Speaker 1: which appeared in USA Today, The Guardian and even The

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Speaker 1: New York Times, came out of a study conducted by

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Speaker 1: Microsoft Canada. The conclusion of the study was that our

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Speaker 1: average attention spans went from twelve seconds in two thousand

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Speaker 1: to just eight seconds in twenty thirteen. Now, eight seconds

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Speaker 1: isn't a very long time unless you're on the back

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Speaker 1: of a bowl that really doesn't want you on his back.

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Speaker 1: But that's a highly preventable situation that involves mostly not

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Speaker 1: getting involved in bull riding. Now, losing four seconds of

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Speaker 1: average attention span in less than a decade and a

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Speaker 1: half might seem alarming, but what made the story so

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Speaker 1: compelling was that it compared that eight second attention span

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Speaker 1: we have to the average goldfish, which can pay attention

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Speaker 1: to one thing four well nine seconds. Now, I happen

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Speaker 1: to have some goldfish in my house because my daughters

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Speaker 1: asked me three years ago if they could try to

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Speaker 1: win a fish at the county fair in northern Minnesota. Now,

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Speaker 1: I generally have a rule against imprisoning any creatures for

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Speaker 1: our viewing pleasure, and I'm pretty resolute on that, But

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Speaker 1: I was distracted when they called, and I didn't think

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Speaker 1: they'd win, And to be honest, I knew the state

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Speaker 1: of the fair that they were at, so I figured

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Speaker 1: even if they did win, we'd be having a goldfish

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Speaker 1: funeral within a couple of weeks. But Darwin is a survivor,

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Speaker 1: and I don't know if I've ever met a healthier

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Speaker 1: or more robust fish than him. He was raised on

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Speaker 1: the streets, so I guess our tank is like a

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Speaker 1: luxury apartment for him. I don't know, But what I

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Speaker 1: do know is that it would take someone a lot

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Speaker 1: smarter than me to figure out what his attention span

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Speaker 1: max is out at. He just mostly goldfishes his way

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Speaker 1: through life and doesn't seem particularly interested in much other

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Speaker 1: than food and sometimes harassing his tank mates. Now, if

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Speaker 1: you do some research on that study that showed goldfish

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Speaker 1: would make better students than us, and I don't know

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Speaker 1: why you would, but if you did, you'd see that

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Speaker 1: it has been debunked as mostly kind of junk science.

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Speaker 1: If you try to find studies on canines and their

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Speaker 1: attention span, you can find a fee, but they leave

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Speaker 1: a lot of questions unanswered, like the goldfish one. Now,

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Speaker 1: one study though, that was conducted at the University of

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Speaker 1: Veterinary Medicine Vienna, dug into this topic with the help

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Speaker 1: of one hundred and forty five border collies that were

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Speaker 1: all aged between six months and fourteen years. The dogs

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Speaker 1: were tested how long they could focus on a certain object,

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Speaker 1: which in this case was a like toy plastic watering can.

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Speaker 1: But they also conducted a person test with an individual

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Speaker 1: who was known to the dog. They didn't come up

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Speaker 1: with anything in you know, as cool and marketable as

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Speaker 1: goldfish possessing better attention spans than people, But they did

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Speaker 1: figure out that younger dogs seem to be more trainable

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Speaker 1: than older dogs attention span wise, which is good news

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Speaker 1: for anyone rock at a pupster right now. It's also

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Speaker 1: not that surprising, you know, the whole old dog's New

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Speaker 1: tricks type thing and all that jazz. Now you might

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Speaker 1: also think, well, what good is a study of only

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Speaker 1: border collies since they are supposed to be the MENSA

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Speaker 1: members of the dog world? Fair point, This is purely

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Speaker 1: anecdotal on my part. But I've been lucky enough to

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Speaker 1: watch a few people who are really good with colleies

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Speaker 1: and sheep do their thing, and I can tell you

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Speaker 1: that I don't know if I've ever seen working dogs

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Speaker 1: focus harder on task at hand than border collies when

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Speaker 1: they're supposed to push some sheep in a certain direction.

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Speaker 1: And that includes all of the hunting dogs I've been

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Speaker 1: around in my life. But you know, what. That's not

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Speaker 1: entirely true. There are plenty of pointers out there who

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Speaker 1: can really find their lane when it comes to focusing

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Speaker 1: on something. And I do have two retrievers in my

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Speaker 1: house that can muster up quite a bit of focus

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Speaker 1: when it comes to anything that can be thrown and

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Speaker 1: that could be brought back to me to be thrown

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Speaker 1: again and again and again. But that's selective memory stuff

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Speaker 1: leaking out of my brain too. I just spent some

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Speaker 1: time with that little King Charles Spaniel I'm helping train,

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Speaker 1: and he reminds me a lot of my kids and

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Speaker 1: myself and quite a few people I know, and that

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Speaker 1: he can focus for a little while on something, but

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Speaker 1: there are many many things that will immediately grab his

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Speaker 1: attention and then he's off on another journey. It's frustrating

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Speaker 1: because he's doing really well place training and paying attention

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Speaker 1: or walking nicely along on a check cord, you know

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Speaker 1: when he's asked to heal. But then someone will pull

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Speaker 1: up in the parking lot and you know they'll get

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Speaker 1: out with a dog or not, and he'll lose his shit,

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Speaker 1: or a bird will fly within one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: yards of us and catch his attention. And well, he'll

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Speaker 1: lose his shit. Since he's a rescue on his third

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Speaker 1: home in his first year of life, I cut him

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Speaker 1: some slack. But I also don't have a choice. He

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Speaker 1: has to work in small, bite sized chunks of training

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Speaker 1: because he can't stay with me long enough to do

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Speaker 1: even three or four minutes a good training in a row. Usually,

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Speaker 1: if another person or another dog, or really anything pulls

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Speaker 1: him out of training mode, he needs to be redirected

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Speaker 1: or it's just going to spiral. Does that sound familiar.

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Speaker 1: It's not an uncommon issue with young dogs, which is

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Speaker 1: ironic because they are highly trainable. But you have to

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Speaker 1: work with them on their mental schedule and not. That's

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Speaker 1: not to say they should lead the charge completely because

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Speaker 1: then you've given them control of the training and they

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Speaker 1: will not how do I put this? Uh, take it seriously.

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Speaker 1: So there has to be a balance, and that starts

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Speaker 1: with just figuring out what you're working with. There are

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Speaker 1: no hard and fast rules about this stuff, you know,

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Speaker 1: like German short hairs can focus for this long, but

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Speaker 1: springers can only focus for this long or whatever. It

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Speaker 1: doesn't work that way. Instead, a good rule, or at

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Speaker 1: least a general rule to consider is what most you

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Speaker 1: know dog trainers will tell you. It's kind of universal

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Speaker 1: advice from them, which is that sessions should be really

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Speaker 1: short with young dogs and grow as the dog ages.

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Speaker 1: But that's sort of vague as well, So think about

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Speaker 1: it this way. You might have an eight week old

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Speaker 1: puppy that you want to sit on command, not an

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Speaker 1: uncommon scenario, but that eight week old puppy doesn't care

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Speaker 1: about you at all, at least until you have some

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Speaker 1: food tucked into your fist. Now, with the help of

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Speaker 1: some calories, you might get it to sniff your hand

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Speaker 1: and sit while you, you know, give it a gentle

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Speaker 1: push on its butt so it hits the ground. But

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Speaker 1: that whole thing will only last a few seconds. If

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Speaker 1: you can do that three times in a row, that's

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Speaker 1: a win. That's it. But that doesn't mean you can't

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Speaker 1: also hold the pup back and tell it to stay

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Speaker 1: for a second or two when you feed it. In

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Speaker 1: the same day that you do a little bit of

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Speaker 1: that treat training for the sick come in. Overall, you

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Speaker 1: might put in a whopping one or two minutes of

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Speaker 1: actual training on any given day with a puff that

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Speaker 1: young but that's a huge win if you do that

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Speaker 1: for a week straight. That's a puppy that will learn

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Speaker 1: and better yet will learn to learn, which is one

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Speaker 1: of the keys to helping a dog develop a better

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Speaker 1: attention span. Overall, this also helps you be more attentive

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Speaker 1: as a trainer, which matters way more than a lot

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Speaker 1: of us probably think. When you can read a dog

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Speaker 1: and realize that it's likely to drift into unproductive mental

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Speaker 1: territory soon, you can either redirect it with a new

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Speaker 1: and interesting task, give it a little break to out,

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Speaker 1: or call the session before it gets into dangerous territory

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Speaker 1: so you can pick up when the dog is fresh.

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Speaker 1: This should be something that's relatable to all of us, honestly.

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Speaker 1: I recently had a conversation with Reva, who edits this

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Speaker 1: podcast and who often tells me interesting theories about extraterrestrial life,

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Speaker 1: where she mentioned she was just mentally fried on a

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Speaker 1: particular day and that she was done working because of it.

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Speaker 1: That led me to explain to her that I have

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Speaker 1: a mental block in my head that allows me to

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Speaker 1: write about six thousand words on any given day, but

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Speaker 1: when I hit that mark, I generally sputter out. I

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Speaker 1: can sometimes go do something else, like play a little

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Speaker 1: guitar or ahead of the gym and reset myself. But overall,

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Speaker 1: there's something to that level of output that drains my

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Speaker 1: brain for the day. It's just all it can handle.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you don't have to strain too hard to

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Speaker 1: think about something in your life like that, most likely

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Speaker 1: something work related. Now, if we acknowledge that about ourselves,

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Speaker 1: it's not so difficult to understand why your one year

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Speaker 1: old Brittany or wire hair you can only handle so

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Speaker 1: many training drills before the wheels start to fall off,

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Speaker 1: and yet those same dogs the next day can do

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Speaker 1: the same drills with enthusiasm for roughly the same amount

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Speaker 1: of time or maybe in a little bit more time

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Speaker 1: before once again the wheels will fall off. So the

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Speaker 1: key is to meet your dog where he's at attention

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Speaker 1: span wise and follow these guidelines. Try not to push

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Speaker 1: it to the point where you've gone past what he

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Speaker 1: can handle, because that's generally unproductive for him and you

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Speaker 1: and can make future training sessions less productive. Literally will

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Speaker 1: make your dog not want to work for you. It's

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Speaker 1: also important to learn where the line is and bump

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Speaker 1: up close to it, but still stay shy of it.

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Speaker 1: You don't want to cross it. This way, you can

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Speaker 1: condition your dog to focus better over the long haul. Now,

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Speaker 1: whether that takes some of the the redirection I just mentioned,

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Speaker 1: or a change of scenery, or do whatever you need

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Speaker 1: to do, you can keep this thing going. Now, this

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Speaker 1: also gets easier the more your dog trains, because you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe you work on one skill for a few minutes,

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Speaker 1: but then there's something else he's learning, so you can

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Speaker 1: pivot to that and change things up a little bit

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Speaker 1: and get a few minutes out of that task. Now.

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Speaker 1: I know it's kind of cliched, but that's how training works.

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Speaker 1: It's brick by brick by slow, slow brick over a

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Speaker 1: long time until you have something to show for it.

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Speaker 1: Some days you add several, some days it's only a couple.

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Speaker 1: But over time you're going to cumulatively get somewhere with it.

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Speaker 1: And at the very least, if you keep up with it,

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Speaker 1: you will have always this strong foundation upon which to work. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is intuitive, not groundbreaking stuff, but we often gloss

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Speaker 1: over it in order to train on the schedule that

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Speaker 1: we want to train on while also indulging in a

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Speaker 1: trade and awful lot of us have, which is impatience.

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Speaker 1: And I get it. My friends. I'm someone who can

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Speaker 1: sit dark to dark in a turkey blind or a

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Speaker 1: deer stand and not go totally crazy. But I also

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Speaker 1: lose my freaking mind if someone is five minutes late

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Speaker 1: and I have to stand around and wait for them.

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Speaker 1: So here is where the attention span thing takes a

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Speaker 1: turn in a different direction. That scare tactic study that

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Speaker 1: said we are worse than goldfish at paying attention, well,

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Speaker 1: the reason they framed it up the way they did

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Speaker 1: is because they wanted to connect the research to the

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Speaker 1: widespread addiction we all have to our phones and now,

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Speaker 1: at least more specifically, you know, to TikTok videos and

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Speaker 1: Instagram reels and NonStop engagement content that gives us tiny

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Speaker 1: bits of entertainment while we watch people set off fireworks

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Speaker 1: in their hands, you know, or fall off moving boats

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Speaker 1: or uh, some of the more robust members of society,

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Speaker 1: as they find out they don't have the upper body

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Speaker 1: strength to properly use a rope, swing over a river whatever.

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Speaker 1: We are moving in a direction that isn't conducive to

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Speaker 1: focusing better. Overall, what does all of us being addicted

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Speaker 1: to our phones have to do with dog training? Well,

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Speaker 1: a lot think about it this way. When you tell

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Speaker 1: your lab to heal and then stay, and then you

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Speaker 1: toss a bumper out with the idea that you'll work

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Speaker 1: on steadiness and hand signals and retrieving the hand all

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Speaker 1: in the same little drill. But then your neighbor who

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Speaker 1: always gives your dogs treats, steps out of his garage

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Speaker 1: and he's fourteen bush lights deep, and he starts to

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Speaker 1: hula hoop in the driveway. Your dog might break or

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Speaker 1: just lose track of the task at hand. That sucks,

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Speaker 1: and it's frustrating because we know that the arc of

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Speaker 1: that training session has just changed for the worse. We

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Speaker 1: know that because we know and can see it in

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Speaker 1: real time with our dogs. Now look at it the

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Speaker 1: other way. Your neighbor doesn't pull any hula hoop related shenanigans.

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Speaker 1: And you send your dog out for that retrieve, and

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Speaker 1: in the time it takes to sprint out there and

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Speaker 1: grab the bumper and bring it back, you take out

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Speaker 1: your phone to see what's new on the gram. Your

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Speaker 1: dog runs back, looks at you, You stare at a

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Speaker 1: little rectangle in your hand, and he knows damn well

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Speaker 1: that you've checked out, so he drops the bumper at

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Speaker 1: your feet, looks up at you, and why wouldn't he

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Speaker 1: He knows that you're not paying attention, and since you're

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Speaker 1: not holding him accountable to his actions by doing him

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Speaker 1: the courtesy of watching him all the way through the retrieve,

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Speaker 1: he's going to test you to see what he can

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Speaker 1: get away with. And in that moment, just a tiny

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Speaker 1: moment of distraction on your part, you've put yourself in

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Speaker 1: a lose lose situation with that behavior. If it's important

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Speaker 1: to you that your dog retrieves to hand, which it

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Speaker 1: should be, he's now not done that because of something

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Speaker 1: you did. Hopefully he's well trained enough to be told

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Speaker 1: to pick it up and heal and then delivered a hand.

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Speaker 1: But if you're not there yet, you have a choice

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Speaker 1: to make. Do you pick it up and reward him

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Speaker 1: with another throw, or do you pick it up and

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Speaker 1: break off the session so he doesn't get the reward

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Speaker 1: of another retrieve, even though the punishment you're doling out

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Speaker 1: was in some ways facilitated by your own behavior. In

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Speaker 1: this way, we have to manage our own attention spans

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Speaker 1: with our dogs. And I'll take that a step further.

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Speaker 1: I know you can't always pay attention to your dog.

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Speaker 1: But think about the times when your dog has gotten

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Speaker 1: into trouble. You know, maybe she snuck off and rolled

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Speaker 1: around in a dead skunk carcass, or maybe you gave

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Speaker 1: her a little too much freedom at the barbecue and

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Speaker 1: she figured out how to eat fifteen chicken wings, bones

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Speaker 1: and all while you were wondering if Reva was right

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Speaker 1: about the aliens, and you stared a bit too long

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Speaker 1: at the sky. Whatever the reason, it really doesn't matter.

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Speaker 1: It's about working with our dogs to learn about their

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Speaker 1: attention span, not as a snapshot in life, but as

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Speaker 1: an evolving feature of them that affects so many different

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Speaker 1: aspects of our relationships with them. And it's also about

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Speaker 1: helping them to increase their attention span, which helps us

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Speaker 1: to help them learn more about the behaviors we want

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Speaker 1: out of them. This is long game stuff, like everything else,

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Speaker 1: I mean really everything else when it comes to developing

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Speaker 1: a good duck dog or an upland dog, or just

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Speaker 1: a dog that won't be an absolute nightmare in the

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Speaker 1: house and your guests come over. But it doesn't end there.

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Speaker 1: And this is the point I want to drive home again,

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Speaker 1: because it's really important if you're going to ask your

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Speaker 1: dog to focus on a task that will help him

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Speaker 1: be a better pet and hunting companion. He at least

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Speaker 1: deserves your full attention, even though you might not be

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Speaker 1: able to compete with the average County Fair goldfish when

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Speaker 1: it comes to focus. Try to stay off of TikTok

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Speaker 1: or Reddit during your training sessions and show your dog

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Speaker 1: that you're committed to the process, at least as much

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Speaker 1: as you want him to be, because if you're not,

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Speaker 1: he'll figure it out and use that against you, because

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Speaker 1: that's just their nature. Now, as a last note on this,

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Speaker 1: I'll say you might not realize this is happening, but

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Speaker 1: dogs losing their focus as a primary driver behind us

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Speaker 1: losing our desire to train them. It's snowballs if you're

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Speaker 1: not careful. And often it's a matter of them either

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Speaker 1: being asked to do too much in a given session,

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Speaker 1: which I've talked about on this podcast a lot, or

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Speaker 1: it's a matter of them being bored by their environment

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Speaker 1: or the ask. If they only ever get to do

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Speaker 1: twenty yard retrieves in the backyard, they might appear to

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Speaker 1: lose their attention quickly. But that same dog that gets

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Speaker 1: to work in four or five different environments and any

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Speaker 1: given week might seem like a focus machine. That's often

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Speaker 1: all it takes, and it is an important distinction. So

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Speaker 1: think about that. If you can keep your mental faculties

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Speaker 1: pointed in the right direction for just long enough, and

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

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Speaker 1: to talk about how to get your sporting dog as

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Speaker 1: much bird exposure this season as you possibly can. That's

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Speaker 1: it for this episode. I'm Tony Peterson and this has

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Speaker 1: been The Houndation's podcast. I want to thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for listening and for all your support. I truly

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Speaker 1: appreciate it. We all here at media to truly appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Without you guys showing up for us, we have nothing,

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Speaker 1: so thank you for that. Now, if you want some

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Speaker 1: more dog training content, or maybe you want some more films,

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Speaker 1: maybe you want to listen to a podcast on a

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Speaker 1: road trip, you're going to take this some of the family.

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Speaker 1: Whatever the mediator dot com has you covered. We literally

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Speaker 1: drop new recipes, new articles, new podcasts, new films every

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Speaker 1: single day. There's something popping up on that site, so

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Speaker 1: go check it out. Thanks again,