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WHEN FAILURE IS GOOD

How to turn failure into the key to success

Whoever said, “Failure is not an option,” never worked a dog.  Work a dog long enough, you may find yourself saying things like “I’ve learned more from my failures than I have from my successes.” 

Granted, the former may sound more bold and audacious than the latter, but we would do well to recognize that failure is not an evil to be avoided at all costs.  Why?  Because it is only by pushing beyond your present limits (and risking failure) that your dog/handler team can ever advance.  If you’re successful on all your training trails, chances are good that you are not sufficiently challenging both members of your team. 

Are we saying that failure can actually make you a more successful handler?  Yes, if you adopt and maintain an attitude that failure itself can be an excellent teacher.  Failure can,  if you let down your guard and embrace it, become a golden opportunity to improve and excel. 

As professional trainers, we work with many dog/handler teams in the course of a year.  However, of the hundreds of teams we have seen, we can list only a fraction of those handlers who truly saw failure as an opportunity to become a better handler.    It doesn’t have to be so hard.

The first step consists of recognizing the importance of your role as your dog’s handler. You must accept the fact that you are your dogs’ primary trainer.  Your dog may have an olfactory system that far exceeds your own, but he cannot know the rules for playing this trailing game without you to teach him.  You should possess a clear understanding of the discipline you are training. 

The second step will require you to learn what mistakes you may be making in that role. 

This means that you must now accept that the majority of failures on the part of your dog/handler team are primarily yours.  Only by recognizing and understanding any mistakes you make in your role as your dog’s trainer and partner, can you avoid repeating those mistakes that led to the failure in the first place.  This alone can make a huge improvement in the success of your trailing team’s performance.

Unfortunately, with human nature being what it is, this can be a huge challenge for some handlers. Most handlers who experience a failure on the trail are not capable of seeing their own role in the problem.  They often make excuses for their dog or attempt to blame someone else.  The trick is to be humble enough to accept responsibility and big enough to keep from becoming your own worst enemy

And finally, you will need to discover what areas are in need of work and then develop a plan to address those areas.  If you find that this is a particularly difficult thing to do, take heart.  Most people have difficulty accurately assessing and evaluating the performance of their own dog/handler team. This is where a wise handler will seek and obtain the guidance of a professional trainer who is skilled in this discipline of trailing. A good trainer is not subject to the emotional involvement that tends to cloud the handler’s judgment and can objectively assess your dog handler team.  If the trainer is qualified and legitimate, the handler should heed their advice and employ the strategies suggested. 

Any trainer whose advice you choose to follow should be professional, competent, and personally successful in the discipline, well respected and have had professional training at some point in their career.  A good trainer should be capable of assessing the temperament of the dog in a relatively short time and providing guidance accordingly.

Now the temperament of the handler is quite another matter.  People can be far more complex and difficult to understand than their dogs.  And since most of the problems that lead to failure out on the trail are a direct result of handler error, this is an area that must be addressed. 

The old saying, “Trust your dog” has become a popular mantra.  But we say, “Trust your trustworthy dog”.  A dog becomes trustworthy when he learns the rules of the trailing game and is not covertly rewarded for taking unauthorized detours as he meanders to his quarry.

Failure can lead to success if you keep this simple thought in mind: Analyze your problem.  Pinpoint the problem. Take steps to address the problem. Once you have pushed your team far enough to fail, go back and try to simulate the situation and utilize your new plan to address it.  Learn to recognize the difference in your dog’s reaction to the new plan.

By adopting a ‘teachable spirit’, and being willing to look without blinking at your own role in any given failure, you can turn it into a success.  If you recognize the need for professional assessment of your dog/handler team, get it and get your team moving forward.  Good handlers are good because they come to wisdom through failure.

 By Jack R. Shuler & Behesha H. Doan

Copyright © 2001 by Jack R. Shuler & Behesha H. Doan. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.

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