Should a dog trainer claim that they can train a dog to do something the same way, again and again, 100% of the time? We see these types of guarantees in the marketing materials of trainers all over the world.
All behavior, and all learned skills, are to be measured by their probabilities rather than by an on/ off guarantee. Even the simplest examples of instinctual behaviors never run at 100%. They vary. The same is true with all learned responses. They are never going to be 100%.
So, what is the value in training and behavior modification? The potential value is in the percentage change from what is to what might be. The more you train something correctly, the better it should get. Part of the effect is that trained responses are parsimonious, meaning that they trend towards the least expenditure of energy over time. That makes them appear more and more consistent in form, duration, intensity, mood state, and other such results. For example, a sloppy Sit will look better over time, even if you aren’t the greatest dog trainer in the world.
This is why I would not take even the most highly trained dog into any situation without realizing that sometimes dogs won’t perform exactly as intended, even under ideal conditions. It is why dogs need human supervision (and we will also make “mistakes” because we are variable ourselves). This doesn’t mean you can’t ever take a dog off leash or work a dog to do some important tasks. What it does mean is that the handler/ owner needs to accept that dogs are not machines (and even machines have a statistical variability of performance).
Thus, supervise your dogs. Keep them on leash, especially in distracting environments. Increase the desired response rates as high as is necessary for the required tasks. Work up the percentages before doing off leash work in the real world. But recognize there is no 100%.
And realize you aren’t perfect, either.
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