There’s a phrase that’s been passed around dog training circles for a while now:
“Set your dog up so they can’t make a mistake.”
I get the intention behind it. Especially early in training. Especially with puppies.
But here’s the thing:
👉If your dog never learns to make a mistake, they also never learn how to recover from one.
That’s the trap of “errorless learning.” It sounds kind. It sounds efficient. But in practice? It can actually undermine long-term progress.
At the Kynology workshop, we dove into this idea. When we remove all possibility of error, we rob the dog of the chance to develop resilience. They don’t get to practice:
- Problem-solving
- Emotional regulation
- Task persistence under pressure
And that creates a fragile learner.
In agility, this shows up when a dog makes a mistake mid-course and then mentally collapses. Or when a young dog panics the first time something unexpected happens, because they were never taught how to navigate the unexpected.
Mistakes aren’t the problem. The inability to bounce back from them is.
And that applies to us, too.
Think about your own training, your handling, your life outside the ring:
When has perfection ever taught you more than a good, clean miss?
The richest learning often comes in the moment after the mistake—when you breathe, regroup, and go again.
So when we talk about training with clarity, structure, and yes, challenge, this is what we’re aiming for. Not perfection. Not bubble-wrapped learning. But skills that hold up when things get messy.
Because they will. Get messy. Sometimes REAL messy, lol (ask me how I know!).
And if you and your dog are prepared for that? That’s where true confidence comes from.
More soon,
—Daisy
P.S. This is part of an ongoing series on lessons I took away from the Kynology workshop. You can share, revisit, or read earlier posts here at the blog!
For those who aren’t Agility Challenge members already, but are curious about the ringside behavior work I mentioned, you can check out parts of The Vida Vlog for free at theagilitychallenge.com/free-training.