All animals are motivated by something; different situations might need a different motivator for the same result from that animal; you might need a different motivator to get results for different behaviors in the same setting.
A good leader will try to find the motivator for each individual animal in each individual situation.
I’ll start with people. Much like dogs most of us aren’t born leaders, some of us learn to become leaders, some of us are forced into leadership and resent it, and some of us know our role and play it. I was told by three people this week that I should go for an open leadership role where I work, even by people who are going for that position. One said I’d be good at it & that I basically do it now. My reply was that I’ve been leading people since I was 19 or so, it’s not my motivation. I’m more than happy doing everything I can to help everyone be better in an unofficial capacity. If I was to be doing it in official capacity my smart alleck remarks about the lack of leadership skills our current group has would change because I would then be in that resentful state of mind, which causes me to not to be able to control the tone with which I say things – seeming aggressive.
People are more often than not motivated by money, I used to be, but I’m not now. Prestige (a position) is another motivator- not for me anymore. The problem with the prestige as motivator is when most people get that position, they forget where they came from or think it’s their ticket to not HAVE to work. The motivator missing these days is pride. People just don’t seem to care about simply taking pride in the job they’ve done – it’s not the main motivator. If pride was the main motivator, the rest falls into place. I’ve always first and foremost taken pride in that I do the best I can, I help to make others around me better, and continually try to learn and improve.
They say 98% of dogs don’t want to lead. We tend to fall short in leading our dogs, much like our failures in leading people. The difference is when we don’t lead our dogs properly they misbehave because they resent being thrust into that position. The difference is they don’t just lose a job or have friends turn their back on them. They tend to act out aggressively causing worse social skills and or dog fights/people bites – much worse consequence for the dog don’t you think? Especially when 98% of the time it’s a humans fault.
I’m working right now with a shih-tzu/terrier. I was told he barks at everybody & everything. So far he only barked at one person (it was dark and the person came around a corner pretty quick), but he quieted very fast when I asked, because I demanded the leadership role of the situation. On the walk, and in socializing with other dogs, his motivator is companionship – he walks great for a young one, looks for direction when thinks of breaking stride with me, when meeting people or other dogs after a few moments he tends to look over at me to make sure he’s doing good. In our first training session he was working great for treats until I decided to go ahead and try recall. I figured because he does so good staying with me on the walk it would be easy. So inside with no distractions starting only 3 ft away, no matter how excited I acted (even went and got squeaky toy) or with higher quality treat he just sat there. Figuring, he was tired of working I slowed down and got him to perform a couple commands he had down (so as to end on “my terms”). Later in the eve, outside and with moderate distractions, I let him get a little distance to potty. When he was done, he started to run back to me so I “captured” that, and gave big praise & pets when to me. I built off that while outside, no treats, just me and praise. But you know what? I tried with treats inside in later session, he just sat there. I tried the same as we did outside, he just sat there.
Different situations, different motivators are all factors to get results. If you are a leader of animals (in which I include us humans), remember we are all alike in that we have our own motivator for different situations. Be patient if not getting the result you want, find the right motivator for the individual animal in that individual situation, you’ll get it if you stay calm, patient, and confident.
