A Christmas Puzzle and the Dog Training Lesson

As our family pulled back and rested from our typical responsibilities this Christmas, one of the things we did to fill our time was working jigsaw puzzles.

We worked the first puzzle in a few days and decided to try another one before vacation ended.

Wow-ee. That second one was deemed a doozy by all participants.

The tough one!

I wouldn’t call myself an avid puzzle worker, but I do enjoy completing easy online ones several times a week. You know, the kind where the pieces are already oriented correctly for you?

That’s not how it works with a “real” puzzle.

The pieces were oddly shaped and didn’t necessarily line up neatly with other pieces. The picture was also a painting, versus a photograph which made it even harder!

As I sat trying combination after combination without success, the word ‘demoralizing’ came to mind. Each time I tried to fit pieces together and couldn’t, my brain registered a “failure.” After 10 minutes of failure without a single win, my motivation was low.

The same thing happens with our dogs! Too many failures and not enough wins makes an unwilling, apathetic participant.

There’s definitely some art to striking the right balance of challenge and success. If I raise the bar too high, the dog cannot win and loses enthusiasm. If I never raise the bar, the dog never grows even though he’s winning every time.

As a general rule, dogs without much training experience need very frequent wins—especially if they’re learning something new. For frequent wins, the increased challenge must be very slight, each time, over a long(er) period of time. I.e. the difference between adding one push-up to your regimen each week, versus adding five each day. This is how I teach dogs to stay on a Place rug.