Seeking Perfection

 “Perfection is the lowest standard a human could ever take on because it is unattainable therefore you ultimately have no standard at all. You are preparing for failure, because that is your ultimate expectation.” Anthony Robbins

The desire to be perfect burdens many people and ironically dooms them to unhappiness. At first, we might think that trying to be prefect is desirable. Let's take a deeper look at that belief. Perfection suggests a state of flawlessness, without any defects. Seeking perfection at a particular task might be achievable and certainly students can strive to attain a perfect grade or you can try to accomplish a perfect job at something. Yet, the goal of being perfect in everything is altogether a different story.

A machine or electronic device may operate perfectly; at least for a while. Yet, over time it will begin to wear down and require repair. I suggest that the very notion of perfection is rooted in the paradigm of Newton's mechanistic universe. Humans, however, were never intended to be perfect. That's part of the definition of being human. Consider the expression, "I'm just human." We need to remind ourselves the goal isn't to emulate a machine, but to embrace the imperfection of being human.

This is no different with our dogs. Seeking perfection in the performance dog is really asking your dog to be something you aren’t and can’t be. Just from the viewpoint of the universe is always changing, always moving, nothing can attain perfection except in that split second when everything is still before the universe moves on.

The only perfection is in being present, yet the perfectionist is never present

The closest thing to perfection is in the ability to be fully present. Without any distracting thoughts, measuring or grading ourselves, we're free to really be in the moment. It's in that moment that we're truly alive. Yet, the perfectionist isn't typically present as they're either busy critiquing the past and replaying their every decision or worrying about the future. So, you see the perfectionist is never really present. Isn't that ironic?

Yet, for the most part our dogs live in the present. There is no “worry” about the future other than that necessary for survival and since we provide that, not much worry is accomplished. There is no measuring of past actions by a dog, what’s past is done unless it may trigger the possibility of trauma, but it’s not examined. So in many ways, our dog are already more perfect than we are in their natural state.

Performance dogs however are asked to do natural things in unnatural ways and sometimes asked to do totally alien behaviors; behaviors that would be non-survival if the dog did them in the wild. And we ask them to do these things perfectly so that WE may hang a ribbon on the wall.

Being present also means not worrying about what others think. Being present means not worrying about whether you are going to make a mistake, taking the pressure off so that mistakes have a much lesser chance of happening.

We make mistake for the following reasons:

· Incomplete knowledge -- we often make decisions on subjects where we don't know all the relevant facts

· Poor communication -- people don't always share all necessary knowledge with decision makers

· Changing conditions -- a decision based upon today's information may turn out to be wrong tomorrow

· Pressure -- people often make mistakes when they have to make decisions too quickly or when under stress

· Complexity -- systems can become so complicated that the developers cannot keep all the details straight. There are limits to the ability of people's minds to process information.

Our dogs make mistakes for similar reasons

· Lack of training – it’s been assumed that the dog “knows” what he’s supposed to do and no further training is required

· Poor communication – the dog doesn’t know he is supposed to be perfect, that’s never been communicated

· Sudden Environmental Changes – the startle factor can really mess up a performance

· Emotional Pressure – We place a lot of pressure on our performance dogs to be perfect so WE can take home a ribbon and hang it on a wall. That pressure, which in most cases causes the dog to want to move faster, creates mistakes – missed behaviors, sloppy behaviors and refused behaviors.

· Complexity – the dog has been asked to do a behavior chain that has been poorly trained

Mastery

Noun: knowledge and skill that allows you to do, use, or understand something very well: complete control of something

To continue with Tony Robbins, he claims that to achieve mastery in life you need to concentrate on the following.

1. Physical Body: The vehicle through which you experience life

2. Emotions & Meaning: The fuel of life

3. Relationships: The ultimate magnifier of human experience

4. Time: How and where you focus your energy

5. Work / Career / Mission: How you make a difference, lead and influence others

6. Finances: A medium of exchange to create, transfer and share value

7. Celebrate & Contribute: A spiritual awareness

Let’s change this to more closely reflect dog training

1. Your dog’s and your own health and fitness

2. The emotional relationship you have with your dog and how s/he reflects you

3. Your perception of your relationship with your dog

4. Time and focus

5. Goals in life, working and sport with your dog

6. The value of the exchange medium you have with your dog

7. Celebrating success and contributing to your dog’s understanding of that success

While all seven areas of life are important, there is a hierarchy that creates peak performance and fulfillment. For example, if you are not healthy everything else will suffer.

Without creating a relationship with your dog at the most basic level with understanding, communication and affinity, you will always be at the mercy of the challenges involved in training and performance. Having a firm understand and 2-way communication with your friend you to be proactive rather than reactive to changes you face.

Similarly, you must determine how you focus and spend your time in order to create a successful performance dog. Until you’ve discovered how to add value in your work with your dog and how to add value to actually working for you in your dog, mistakes will be made, and points lost.

If you set yourself a goal, you should be able to see it, smell it, feel it and almost touch it and you must be willing to take action to achieve it. But more importantly, that need must somehow be communicated to your dog. Without a willing dog, nothing is going to go right. In creating that willingness to perform and training the behaviors themselves, your communication in the learning process must include a medium of exchange. Nothing is ever gotten for nothing. There must be exchange occurring between the asking party and the performing party. After all, you don’t work without the promise and delivery of a paycheck.

The last but almost the most important part of achieving success is to celebrate that success, even if it wasn’t perfect, even if you didn’t win. Celebrate anyway, make your dog part of that celebration so that the next time he will work for that celebration and things will improve.