犬类敏捷赛的沟通艺术与挑战
在犬类敏捷赛（dog agility）的世界里，我已沉浸六年，这让我深刻接受了一个事实：在这支队伍中，最引人关注的并非是我，而是我的搭档——我的爱犬。正如我此刻介绍我的明星搭档“高五”（High Five）一样，这场运动的核心魅力在于人宠间的深度协作。犬类敏捷赛，这项起源于后院的爱好，已然发展成为一项严谨的全球性竞技。对我而言，它更是一份全职的事业。
我拥有包括“高五”在内的多只参赛犬。我的队伍中有“惊喜”（Surprise），一只与“高五”同为边境牧羊犬的侄女；还有“蜜蜂”（Bee）和“里约”（Rio），两者皆为设特兰牧羊犬；而我最小的伙伴是“闪电”（Skittles），一只混种犬。与大多数职业运动员相似，我们全年无休，平均每周训练四到五天，地点通常是在拥有中央空调和人造草坪（astroturf）的大型竞技场。
眼前所见的，是赛场上标准敏捷赛道的缩小版。在正式比赛中，赛道会铺设 18 到 22 个障碍物（obstacles），占地约 10,000 至 12,000 平方英尺。比赛的目标是在规定顺序内完成所有障碍，力求零失误（no mistakes），并以最快的速度超越所有对手。听起来简单，却暗藏玄机。
赛道设计的核心挑战在于其极高的变化性——裁判几乎从不重复使用相同的赛道。这意味着可能存在多达 6.4 亿万亿种（6.4 quadrillion）不同的赛道组合。更关键的是，直到比赛当天，我们才能获知当天的赛道布局。而作为人类的训导员（human handler），我们只有短短八分钟时间来研究、记忆并准备以最高速度完成这条赛道。任何一个微小的失误，都可能让胜利从指间溜走。
然而，当一切条件完美契合，星辰大海般的状态汇聚时，比赛便会呈现出如下令人赞叹的一幕。赛事评论员：“在 16 英寸组的资格赛中，速度最快的狗狗，也是最后一个出场的，它能否超越麦迪逊，成为韦斯特敏斯特赛上的冠军？詹妮弗（Jennifer）给出了一个很好的引导，让她能够完成前交叉，在跷跷板（teeter）上保持住，非常好，通过轮胎。上到 A 字架（A-frame），触碰，非常漂亮，进入隧道。我喜欢她不断地对狗狗说‘好，好’，用语言奖励它，这太棒了。天哪，看看那边的速度。惊人的狗狗跑姿。看看它能否保持干净利落。好了。最后一个跳跃。就是这样，就是这样。你们的新冠军诞生了。”（掌声）
GC：那是“蜜蜂”（Bee）和我，在 2022 年纽约市举行的韦斯特敏斯特犬业俱乐部（Westminster Kennel Club）精英赛（Masters Agility Championship）上的情景。我们赢得了全场精英赛冠军的头衔，这是该项目历史上首只获此殊荣的设特兰牧羊犬。（掌声）。
人们常常误以为，在犬类敏捷赛中最困难的部分是教会狗狗如何跳过呼啦圈（hoop）或爬过跷跷板（teeter-totter）。但事实并非如此。那部分其实相当容易。设备的规格是标准化的，一旦狗狗学会了如何使用这些设备，它们便能熟练应对。坦白说，在最高水平的比赛中，狗狗鲜少犯错。因此，决定胜负的关键在于速度。
正如一级方程式赛车（F1）、纳斯卡（NASCAR）或奥运滑雪项目一样，裁判需要使用激光传感器和视频回放来确定胜者。在去年的比利时世界敏捷锦标赛（Agility World Championship）上，他们甚至精确到了百分之一秒（1/100 of a second），但即便如此，仍然出现了金牌并列（tie for the gold medal）的情况。
这番景象揭示了一个核心真理：真正的挑战在于跨物种沟通（interspecies communication）。我们需要建立一个高度精炼的信号、时机与信任系统，使得狗狗能够全速奔跑，在毫秒间做出决策，而这一切仅仅基于训导员所提供的信息。这项运动的本质是沟通，是连接。而这正是我今天要与大家分享的核心。事实上，学会如何与我的狗狗“交流”（communicate with my dog），而不仅仅是“对我的狗狗发号施令”（commanding her），是我职业生涯中最重要的一课。
Original English
I've been competing in dog agility since I was six years old, so I've had a lot of time to accept this hard truth. I'm not the part of the team that most people are concerned about. They just want to meet my teammate. So let's start with her. High Five! Good girl. Sit. Are you ready? OK. Rep, rep. Tire. Weave, weave. Yes, good girl. Weave, weave. Tunnel, tunnel. Loop, loop. Tunnel, tunnel. Weave. Weave, weave, weave. Get it, get it, get it, get it! (Cheers and applause) Dog agility started as a backyard hobby, but it has evolved into a serious global competition. For many, including myself, it's become a full-time career. High Five is just one of many dogs that I compete with. I also have Surprise, her niece, who is also a Border Collie, Bee and Rio, both Shetland Sheepdogs, and my youngest is Skittles, a mixed breed. Like most pro athletes, we train year round, four to five days a week on average, in a giant air-conditioned arena with astroturf. What you see here is a small version of a full-size agility course. At a proper competition, you have 18 to 22 obstacles on approximately 10 to 12,000 square-feet arena, and the goal is to run those obstacles in order, making no mistakes and faster than any of your competitors. Sounds simple enough, right? But there's a catch. Every course is different. In fact, the judge almost never reuses the same course twice. That means that there is a possible 6.4 quadrillion different courses available. That's right, quadrillion. And we don't know until the day of the event what the course is. You, as the human, get just eight minutes to study, memorize and get ready to run that course at full speed. One mistake, just one, and the win slips right through your hands. But sometimes the stars align and it goes a bit like this. (Video) Commentator: The fastest dog in qualifying in the 16-inch class, the last dog to run, can it overtake Madison and be a champion here at Westminster? Jennifer gets a good lead out so she can do that front cross, teeter, you stay on it, there we go, through the tire. Up and over this A-frame, touch, beautiful, get into that tunnel. I love she's saying "good good," she's rewarding her dog verbally, it's awesome. Boy, look at the speed over there. Amazing dog walking. See if it can stay clean. There we go. One last jump to go. There it is, there it is. There's your new winner. (Applause) JC: That's Bee and I at the 2022 Westminster Kennel Club Masters Agility Championship held in New York City, where she won the title of Overall Masters Agility Champion, the first Sheltie in the history of the sport to do so. (Applause) Now often people think that the hardest part about dog agility is teaching them how to jump through a hoop or climb over a teeter-totter. But that's not entirely true. That part's actually easy. The equipment specifications are standardized, so once we teach the dogs the equipment, they know how to do the equipment. Frankly, at the highest levels of competition, dogs rarely make mistakes. So that means the difference between winning and losing comes down to speed. Just like F1, NASCAR or Olympic skiing, the judges have to use laser sensors and video playback to determine the winner. At last year's Agility World Championship in Belgium, they measured time to the 1/100 of a second, and yet there was still a tie for the gold medal. This means that the real challenge is in this interspecies communication. Building a system of signals, timing and trust so refined that the dogs can run full-speed, making decisions in milliseconds based on nothing more than the information the handler is providing. This sport is about communication. This sport is about connection. And that's what I'm here to share with you. What dog agility can teach you about communication. In fact, learning how to communicate with my dog and not just to my dog has been the most important lesson of my career.
掌握狗狗的语言：从本能信号到心有灵犀
最初，沟通似乎很简单：我呼喝一声指令，或指向一个障碍物，运用我的声音和手势。毕竟，作为人类，我们习惯这样交流。但事实并非如此——这并非狗狗的天然沟通方式。因此，若想我的狗狗能以激情、力量和精准度奔跑，我必须学会理解并运用“它的语言”。
在敏捷赛中，我们有六种主要的沟通信号（cues）可以用来与狗狗交流：手势（hand signal）和口令（verbal），这两种是我已提及的；此外还有肩部姿势（shoulder position）、眼神接触（eye contact）、动作（motion）和位置（location）。作为人类，我们往往倾向于使用手势和声音，但这些对狗狗而言是“非自然”（unnatural）的信号，意味着它们并非与生俱来就熟悉的。
对狗狗而言，最自然、最本能的信号是：动作（motion）、位置（location）、肩部姿势（shoulders）和眼神接触（eye contact）。这些是它们即使在幼年时期也能理解的信号。设想一下，如果你把一只八周大的幼犬放在地上，然后开始奔跑，它会本能地追逐你；而当你停下，它也会跟着停下。这是一种基于动作的沟通，非常内在、非常本能。但如果对同一只八周大的幼犬，你看着它说“坐”（sit）或“待”（stay），它并不能直接理解你的话语，除非这些信号已经被训练过。
因此，你可以想象一下这个场景：你试图让狗狗以最高速度穿越一个复杂的赛道，却使用的是对它来说最不自然的信号和沟通方式。这无疑是极其冒险的。我们不希望狗狗在奔跑中停下来，频频向我们确认：“我们要去哪里？这个信号是什么意思？”毕竟，速度是这项运动的关键。
我常常告诉我的学生，即使我患上喉炎，双臂吊在胸前，我依然能够完成一条敏捷赛道。这是因为我不依赖狗狗最不自然的信号——口令和手势。我专注于利用狗狗能理解的、最自然的信号：动作。
让我来向你们展示我的意思。
（演示开始） “高五”！乖女孩。 我现在要带它跑两次这个训练。 （开始）我们先从那个轮胎（tire）开始。 过来。（Sit.）坐下。 第一次，我希望你们专注于它在做什么。 乖女孩。 轮胎（Tire），跳跃（jump），隧道（tunnel）。 跨栏（Weave），跨栏（Weave）。 乖女孩。 跨栏（Weave）。 接住（Take），很好。 （结束） 那么，它刚才在做什么？为什么那样做？ 我们要再跑一次。 这次，我希望你们留意我的动作，以及我是如何与它沟通的。 （开始）来，坐下（sit）。 乖女孩。 轮胎（Tire），跳跃（jump），隧道（tunnel），隧道（tunnel）。 跨栏（Weave），跨栏（Weave），跨栏（Weave）。 接住（Take）。 乖女孩。 乖女孩，好了，休息一下。（鼓掌）
（教练解释）我希望它做的是沿直线快速奔跑，以最少的步数完成。我不希望它在中途检查我的意图，也不希望它怀疑我们要去哪里，或者在做什么。所以，为了向它传达这个意图，我也保持着朝那个方向的移动（motion），并且我的速度也保持向前。
正如我之前提到的，裁判经常更换赛道。随着比赛级别的提高，陷阱和挑战也变得更加棘手。裁判常常会将一个障碍物故意放置在狗狗的常规路径上，试图诱导它走向看似最自然的路径。
所以，这次我将这样做：我会走向前，从轮胎（tire）开始，但我们这次不要求它走隧道（tunnel），我也不会呼喊它的名字或发出任何急促的声音。我们将看看它能否跟随我的动作。 （开始）好的，过来。 来。（Sit.）坐下。 乖女孩。 轮胎（Tire），跳跃（jump），跨栏（weave），跨栏（weave），跨栏（weave）。 是的，乖女孩，跨栏（weave），跨栏（weave）。 接住（Take）。 好了。 （掌声） 过来，休息一下。 乖女孩。
（教练解释）我希望它在跳过这个障碍后，能够转身回到跨栏（weave poles），而不是直接向前进入隧道（tunnel）。毕竟，隧道是狗狗最喜欢的障碍，也是我们刚才要求它做的。所以，为了发出这个转向的信号，我必须改变我的引导（handling）和沟通方式，以它能够理解的方式进行。
当它接近这个跳跃障碍时，因为我希望它减速并转身，所以我自己也减速并转身。如果我想让它做和之前一样的事情，我就会保持之前的动作。因此，我们的目标是清晰地发出我们希望它完成的指令。它需要的是无歧义的沟通，非常非常清晰的信号。
我们绝对不应提供冲突的信息。试想这样一个场景：我的身体在传递一个信息，而我的语言却在说另一件事。在狗狗飞奔的速度下，它们没有时间停下来询问“我们该去哪儿”。它们只能选择，而且往往会选择最符合它们天性的路径。
因此，我将向你们展示一个稍微不同的情况。我们将从隧道（tunnel）这里开始。现在，我将呈现冲突的（conflicting）信号。我的身体将指示它向一个方向，而我的语言将指示另一个方向。以它现在的奔跑速度，它会倾向于选择对它来说最自然的方式。
（开始）好的，过来。 来。（Sit.）坐下。 乖女孩。 隧道（Tunnel）。 跳跃（Jump）。 右，右（Right, right），跨栏（weave）。 乖女孩。 乖女孩。 是的，做得好。 接住（Get it）。 好了，休息一下。（做得好。）
（教练解释）正如你们刚才看到的，我的身体在指示它向左，而我的语言却在指示它向右。以它奔跑的速度，它不会去质疑语言指令的含义。它将响应最适合它的、最自然的沟通方式，那就是它的动作。
这就是我们训练的方式。我几乎记录我们所做的每一次训练。如果有任何失误，我都会回顾视频。大多数时候，错误在于我。一个糟糕的信号，一个迟到的指令，因为我做了什么而导致它的困惑。它（狗狗）可能在想：“是的，总是你的错。” （笑声）
因此，在教学时，我常常会用驾驶的比喻来向我的学生解释。它（狗狗）是驾驶员，坐在驾驶座上，它在跑赛道。我只是那个负责导航并告知它去向的人。想象一下，我们正以每小时 70 英里的速度在高速公路上行驶，在左侧车道，我突然说：“哦，这是我们的出口。” 你不能就这样随意地变道出去。我的工作是及时地告知它要去哪里。
但是，我也不想太早发出指令，导致它提前进入右侧车道，落后于一长串卡车，从而在出口处浪费大量时间。我知道。犬类敏捷赛是一项团队运动。它不是单打独斗。这一切都关乎沟通。一切都关乎连接。
最好的比赛，是狗狗和训导员之间真正产生连接的时刻。不仅仅是在赛道上观看它，而是真正地与它进行眼神交流。这就是为什么我绝不会戴着太阳镜（sunglasses）参加敏捷赛。
而最优秀的团队，也是那些最了解彼此的。了解我的队友，了解它的倾向、优点、缺点、恐惧，能让我与它达成妥协。它们让我能够调整和定制每一次训练，以适应我的狗狗。正如我告诉我的学生们：“训练你拥有的那只狗。”
我的每一只狗都略有不同。“惊喜”毫不费力就能一遍又一遍地以全速完成训练。而“高五”则是个“完美主义者”。如果错误太多，或者我必须重复太多次，她就会开始担心自己做得不对。她需要放慢速度。因此，适应我的狗狗的需求以及它们沟通的方式，能让我建立一种关系，让我的狗狗是因为“想要”而进行敏捷赛，而不是因为“不得不”去做。毕竟，我将把它们置于一些相当高压的境地，我希望它们在那里玩得开心。 乖女孩。
所以，你可能会想：“这太迷人了，但它和我有什么关系呢？” 敏捷赛教会了我，与狗狗沟通与与人类沟通并没有太大的区别。你必须问自己同样的问题，无论是抚养孩子、领导工作团队，还是与配偶争吵：我是在说“他们的语言”吗？我的沟通方式是否清晰？我是否保持了一致性？我是在试图理解它们，还是仅仅在试图控制它们？
敏捷赛也教会了我，最优秀的沟通者不一定是那些声音最大或最强势的人。他们是那些主动伸出援手，以建立最佳连接并获得理解的人。无论你的队友是两条腿还是四条腿，都无关紧要。最好的关系，是当它们足够信任你，能全速奔向未知，并且知道你将安全地引导它们，不是因为你要求它们这样做，而是因为它们愿意这样做。这才是敏捷赛，这才是沟通的最高境界。谢谢大家。（鼓掌） 坐下。（Sit.） “高五”！（High Five.） 乖女孩。（Good girl.） （鼓掌）
Original English
In the beginning, it seemed simple. I would holler a command, or I would point at an obstacle. I would use my voice, and I would use my hands. After all, we're human, that's how we communicate. But that's not what's natural to the dog. So if I want my dog to run with passion, power and precision, I have to learn her language. In agility, we have six primary cues that we can use to communicate with the dog. We have the hand signal and the verbal, which I've mentioned, but also shoulder position, eye contact, motion and location. As humans, we tend to default to the hand signal and the voice, but those are unnatural cues for the dog, meaning those are not ones that they're familiar with at birth. The most natural cues for them are motion, location, shoulders and eye contact. These are the ones that they're going to understand even as puppies. So if I take an eight-week-old puppy down and I set them down and I take off running, that puppy chases me. And if I stop, the puppy stops. This is a motion-based communication. It's very innate, it's very instinctual. But if I take that same eight-week-old puppy, and I look at it and I say “sit” or “stay,” that puppy doesn't understand what I'm talking about unless those cues are already trained. So imagine a scenario where you're trying to run a dog at full speed through a complex course, using the signals and communication that is the least natural to them. That's very risky. We don't want them to stop and be checking in with us and say, "Where are we going? What does that cue mean?" This is about speed, after all. I often tell my students that I could have laryngitis and both arms in a sling, and yet still I could run an agility course. Because I'm not relying on their least-natural cues of verbal and hand signal. I want to focus on what my dog understands the natural uses of motion. So let me go ahead and show you what I mean. High Five! Good girl. So I'm going to run it through this drill twice. Hi. We're going to start over here at the tire. Come here. Sit. The first time I want you to focus on what she's doing. Good girl. Tire, jump, tunnel. Weave, weave. Good girl. Weave. Take, good. So what was she doing and why was she doing it? We're going to do it a second time. And this time, I want you to pay attention to what I'm doing and how I'm communicating with her. Hi, sit. Good girl. Tire, jump, tunnel, tunnel. Weave, weave, weave. Weave, take. Good girl. Good girl, alright, take a rest. (Applause) What I was looking for her to do was run a straight line at a very fast speed. I wanted her to go down this line, taking as few strides as possible. I didn't want her checking in with me, I didn't want her questioning where we were going and what we were doing. So in order to communicate that to her, I also kept my motion running in that direction, and I wanted my speed to stay forward as well. Now as I mentioned previously, the judge often changes the course. And as the levels get more difficult, the traps and challenges get trickier. So often a judge will place an obstacle very obviously on the dog's line in order to try to trick them into what seems like the natural path. So this time, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go down and start at the tire, but we're not going to ask for the tunnel, and I'm not going to holler her name or scream anything frantic. We're going to see if she can watch my motion. OK, let's come here. Hi. Sit. Good girl. Tire, jump, weave, weave, weave. Yes, good girl, weave, weave. Take. There we go. (Applause) Come here, take a rest. Good girl. So what I wanted her to do was turn after this jump and make the turn back to the weave poles, not go straight ahead into the tunnel. After all, the tunnel is the dog’s favorite obstacle, and it is what we just asked her to do. So in order to cue that turn, it was on me to change my handling and my communication with her in a way that she would understand. As she was approaching this jump, because I wanted her to decelerate and turn, I decelerated and turned. If I wanted her to do the same thing as before, I would have kept doing the same thing as before. So our goal is in cuing very clearly what it is that we want her to do. She wants unambiguous communication, very, very clear signals. What we don't want to do is present conflicting information. So imagine a scenario where my body says one thing but my verbal say something else. At the speeds the dogs are traveling, they don't have time to stop and ask for information about where to go. They just have to make a choice, and they're often going to go with what is natural to them. So I'm going to show you something a little bit different on this one. We're going to start over here at the tunnel. And now I'm going to present conflicting cues. So my body is going to tell her one thing and my verbal is going to tell her something else. At the speed that she's going she's going to default to what is most natural to her. OK, come here. Hi. Come here. Sit. Good girl. Tunnel. Jump. Right, right, weave. Good girl. Good girl. Yes, good job. Get it. OK, take a rest. Good job. As you could see on that one, my body was telling her to go to the left, but my verbal was telling her to go to the right. At the speed she was going, she wasn't going to question what the verbal was doing. She was going to respond to what was the most natural means of communication for her, and that was her motion. This is how we train. I record almost every training session that we do, and if there's any mistakes, I go back and I watch that video. Most of the time it was me. A poor signal, a late command, confusion on her part because of something that I did. She's like, yes, it's always you. (Laughter) So often when I'm teaching, I will use driving metaphors for my students. So she's the driver, she's in the driver's seat, she's running the course. I'm just the one navigating and letting her know where to go. So imagine we're going down the freeway, 70 miles an hour in the left-hand lane, and I just go, "Oh, this is our exit." You can't just be swerving across and getting off. It's my job to communicate to her where we're going and to do so in a timely manner. But I also don't want to be so early that she gets over in the right-hand lane behind a line of semis, and it costs us a bunch of time getting off at the exit. I know. Agility is a team sport. It's not a solo act. It's all about communication. It's all about connection. The best runs are when there's a real connection between the dog and the handler. It's not just about watching her on course, it's about actually making eye contact with her. It's why I will never be caught running an agility course in sunglasses. But the best teams are also those who understand each other. Knowing my teammate, knowing their tendencies, their strengths, their weaknesses, their fears, allow me to meet her halfway. They allow me to adjust and tailor every training session to my dog. As I tell my students, train the dog you were given. All of my dogs are a little bit different. Surprise has no problem doing the drills 100 times over and over again at full speed. High Five, on the other hand, is a bit of a perfectionist. If there's too many mistakes or if I have to repeat things too many times, she starts to worry that she's done it wrong. She has to go slower. So adjusting for what my dog needs and how they communicate allows me to build a relationship where my dog does agility because they want to, not because they have to. After all, I'm going to put them in some pretty high-pressure situations, and I want them to be having a good time out there. Good girl. So you might be thinking, this is fascinating, but what does this have to do with me? Agility has taught me that communicating with dogs isn't all that different than communicating with humans. You have to ask yourself the same question, whether it's raising a child, leading a team at work, or arguing with a spouse, am I speaking their language? Am I communicating in a clear way? Am I being consistent? Am I trying to understand them, or am I just trying to control them? Agility has also taught me that the best communicators aren’t necessarily those that speak the loudest or are the most commanding. They are those who reach out to have the best connection and to be understood. It doesn't matter if your teammate is two-legged or four. The best relationships are going to be when they trust you enough to run full-speed into the unknown, knowing that you will get them through safely and not because you asked them to, but because they want to. That’s agility, and that’s communication at its best. Thank you. (Applause) Sit. High Five. Good girl. (Applause)