Expect your Hound to Do Better--it May Pay Off!

If you want to have your hound do better in field trials have greater expectations for it. This is the thought conveyed by Wall Street Journal Science writer, Sharon Begley in the Friday, November 6th edition of the Wall Street Journal. Her column, entitled Science Journal, appears each Friday and always makes for interesting and thought provoking reading.

In experiments with rats twelve experimenters were given five rats each. According to Begley, Six were told their animals were from a genetic strain that learned like long tailed geniuses while the other six were told that their rats were dolts. The experimenters than took five days to train their rats to go through a maze. They differed only in the experimenters expectations for them.

You guessed it. The rats identified as bright did better right from the first day and kept on getting better. All the rats were from the same strain but the group with the highest expectations did much better than the group with the low expectations.

Begley reports that the covert communication probably came from the way experimenters with smart rats acted: They felt more relaxed and enthusiastic as they worked with the rats, talked to them less (fewer out bursts of you stupid rat!) and handled them more. Rats can improve maze learning 65%.

If this is true concerning rats it could also be true for our field trial hounds. Having better expectations for a hound may help it perform better. Being kind to a dog and handling it with care just might give it that extra boost that will put it in the winners circle. So instead of telling your dog it is stupid when you catch it making a mistake try congratulating it when it does something good.

When you see Michigan Handler, Duane Root setting under a tree in the shade talking to one of the dogs he is handling he may be giving that dog the extra confidence it needs to win the next brace. Duane has high expectations for his hounds. He treats them like they are members of his family. Duane says, "The more I monkey with a hound and have confidence in it the better it will perform. You have to have confidence in the dog and likewise the dog has to have confidence in you."

Sharon Begley's report on expectations altering outcomes appears to work for Duane Root. So give it a try. Having better expectations for your hound may pay off. Experiments with rats and Duane Root's experiences proves it.