You’ve heard the phrase “less is more.” Does it have relevance to dog training? Did you study physics? Do you remember Newton’s Second Law of Motion (I think). Yes, they are related.
Buddy and I were deep into preparation for an upcoming NAVHDA Utility test. It’s a tough test, full of anxiety-producing drills. Both the field and water portions require a dog to be rock-steady in the midst of distraction shots, walking birds, flying birds, dead birds, shot birds, bobbing decoys, and swinging guns. Not to mention a small gallery of judges, gunners and handlers adding to the circus-like atmosphere. And did I mention the steadiness thing?
Wham! It hit me during a less-than-stellar moment when, with my wife’s help on the checkcord, Buddy lunged every time the bird flew and the gun popped. Here was the revelation: Buddy was reacting to her tensing the checkcord, holding on for dear life in anticipation of the bird’s flush and his rush. She was telegraphing that tension to him literally and figuratively. He felt both physical and emotional stress, and simply couldn’t focus on what he knew to be right.
It was the literal manifestation of Newton’s Second Law: for every motion, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
[An obedience trainer who’d worked with wolves once told me canines will almost always pull back when you do, for example, on a lead. We use this to our advantage when steadying a dog on point by pushing on his rump. In my case, just the opposite was taking place.]
None of this would have sunk in near as quickly had I not taken him out to remedy that night’s situation with a brush-up the next day, sans spouse. No wife, no checkcord, less tension in the air and voila! A steady dog throughout the sequence.
Scott Linden Outdoors 
Positive thinking too, Scott. Positive thinking. Your wife was also probably telepathically thinking “don’t break, don’t break” rather than “you can stand steady, Buddy”, and believe he could. I had an ol’ bird dog trainer show me this years ago. We set the dogs up thinking they will fail rather that succeed. Watch an alpha wolf direct a hunt. No words are spoken. It’s done with positive thinking. She’s got every wolf in the pack in the exact position she wants them. When I’m steadying a dog now, I never have the thought of “don’t break, don’t break” running through my mind. The body language is so much more calm and reassuring to the dog with this kind of thinking in training.
Funny, she is the most adamant about doing exactly what you say. I am trying to revise my outlook. Thanks.