C.A.R.E. — A Measure of Success in Dog Training

“Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day.” — Rory Vaden

I love this quote by Rory Vaden. It fits training a dog so well, how could we possibly think about it any differently now that we’ve thought of it in that context? I have to put in effort EVERY day in order to have success. Right! Got it…..

Except….

How does one measure success. Often as humans, we can only focus on the end stage, the BIG picture — the SUCCESS, and we think about the final product as our measure of success. This often leaves us throwing our hands up in frustration when we don’t achieve it overnight or when we’re confused about how to get from A to Z?

What about the other 24 stepping stone letters?

Think about dropping a child off for their first day of Kindergarten. If the only measure of success is a University Degree, you’ll feel like a failure pretty quickly. So let’s break things down into bite sized chunks of information and what better way to do that than with an acronym?

I love acronyms and here is another good one for remembering what’s important when working with your dog: Your role in helping your dog learn is to C.A.R.E.

Be: