Hey dog lovers! Jamie Robinson here, the Crafter behind Canine Game Theory, with a hot take: dogs don’t mess up in training. Ever. How could they? They didn’t come up with the plan, decide the outcome, or set the rules—we did! When things go sideways, it’s not your pup’s fault. It’s on us for misreading what they’d do with the cues we gave them. Blaming a dog for a training hiccup is like blaming a pen for writing a bad essay—it’s just the tool, not the writer.
Think about it: when you’re training your dog—say, teaching Chesovy to commit to a scent in “Scent Tunnel Commitment” from my Basics workbook—you set up the game, pick the scent, and decide what “success” looks like (maybe a nose freeze). If Chesovy doesn’t nail it, it’s not because he’s “wrong.” It’s because my prediction of how he’d respond to the tunnel, the scent, or my reward timing was off. Maybe I lured him too fast, or the tunnel spooked him, or I didn’t mark his effort clearly enough. Dogs are always doing their best to figure out what we want—they’re not the ones who got the script wrong. We are.
This is why I’m all about play-based training in Canine Game Theory. Play lets dogs be dogs, tapping into their natural instincts while we learn to read their signals better. When we mess up (and we will!), play keeps it fun, not frustrating. Science backs this up—studies like Sommerville et al. (2017) show play reduces stress and boosts learning for dogs. So, if your pup “fails” a game, don’t blame them. Ask yourself: What did I miss? Did I set the stage right? Was my timing off? Did I make it fun enough?
Here’s a challenge: next time training doesn’t go as planned, take a step back. Look at your dog like a teammate, not a student who flunked a test. Try a new angle—maybe a sillier game, a better treat, or a clearer cue. That’s what my 9-day Workbook Challenge, launching May 14, is all about! Each day, you’ll play a game from one of my workbooks—like “Copy Canine Game” from Evaluating a Dog for Service—and see how play shifts the focus from “fixing” your dog to understanding them better. Join us at brainsbonesandbehavior.com, grab the free booklet, and let’s train smarter, not harder. Because when it comes to training, the only one who can get it wrong is us—not our dogs.
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