Entrenched myth: A threat-filled world favors the speedy; you’re either the quick or the dead.
Contrary finding: The idea that leading in a “fast world” always requires “fast decisions” and “fast action”—and that we should embrace an overall ethos of “Fast! Fast! Fast!”—is a good way to get killed. 10X leaders figure out when to go fast, and when not to.
Excerpt from Great By Choice by Jim Collins & Morten Hansen
“Figure out what you do!!!” – Tim Robinson’s game show host to Chunky the game show mascot; season 1: episode 6 of I Think You Should Leave
Jim Collins studies public companies, but he really studies human systems and human behavior. I coach nose work teams, but I really coach humans to understand themselves and the system they want to operate within with their dogs. One of the hardest truths I share with people is: to become fast you must be slow. You must take the time to understand yourself, your dog, and the system you’re in.
One of the places people are helplessly in a rush is at the source of the odor. Yet, people expect so much from their dogs in relation to the source. Slow down, consider the agreements you want to build with your dog regarding source. The commitment to it, the drive to it, the persistence at it, the communication of its location, the confidence to leave it behind post-find.
Another place we move fast in a “threat-filled” search is in relationship to distractions. Rather than practice making sense to our dogs – or better, making sense with our dogs – we act fast and trade understanding for avoidance. If you’ve ever panicked when your dog’s nose dug into a pile of leaves in an exterior search, or if you’ve blurted out an alert when your dog excitedly feather dusted a container with his muzzle, only to find out you were wrong in both cases, you need to step out of the fast lane of competition and slow down.
Moving slow can mean taking breaks during a search, thinking through what is happening, positioning yourself to be intentional rather than reactive.
Moving slow can also mean breaking up a search into component parts and focusing on one part at a time. When you simplify the search in this way, you and your dog may actually be moving quite fast as you play with more clarity.
No matter how you choose to approach moving slow in your searches, your goal is to “figure out when to go fast, and when not to.” You absolutely need to develop a process that affords you the opportunity to recognize decision points in searches and to choose what to do. So many humans rest on the assumption that it is the dog’s responsibility to make human-centric choices in the search. Whaaaat?! Whaaaat?! It is a partnership. The dog teaches us about odor movement, patterns of advancement towards source, and patterns of stuckness. We can teach the dog about the target odors and non-target odors/distractions, and we can engage the dog in building agreements to focus on target odors, to avoid peeing & pooping, to work within the limitations of the leash and/or our voice, etc. A human who is not well-equipped to partner with her dog under a variety of scenarios – including the dog’s decision to investigate (apparently) highly distracting areas or objects, and the dog’s unexpected pauses, looks, or vocalizations – will be left with only the thinnest tether of luck to tie her to a positive outcome, and most often, that tether will be of the bad luck variety, and trip her up before victory is possible.
Turn the diamond of scent work partnership in your hand and we see a slightly different way of looking at the question of when and how to move fast. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of observing a dog hunting a critter, there is a rhythm, a ritualistic unfolding from hopeful sniffing to frothy huffing to manic pouncing. A dog high on the scent of a frightened rodent can spend hours following trails, muzzle-punching the doorways to dens, scratching at the earth and studying the evidence of past paths and next moves.
No one is managing the pace of the dog – not even the dog himself. There is a primal force at play. The fast and the slow join together like dueling weather systems, sometimes forming a hurricane, sometimes fading into clear skies and a calm breeze.
The nature of the dog is to immerse in the ritual. Time is not the dictator of events, but merely the rubber band that stretches and snaps in service to the ritual.
You can gain a deep respect for your dog as a master communicator through the act of searching for target odor. You only need to be open to the slow unfolding of the story. To the stretching and snapping of the ritual of the search. You only need to step outside of time and let the dog be your guide.
If you are successful in joining your dog in the ritual of the search, you may develop a strong desire to listen for what your dog wants to tell you, instead of waiting for what you expect him to tell you. Focus on becoming an expert listener and you will begin to understand when to move slow and when to move fast.
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Happy Sniffing!
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