More Interesting Than Dirt: Harder Than It Seems

Dogs have evolved with humans, and therefore are very, very keen on what works with their two-legged companions. Not in an evil, manipulative way but just in ways that are effective.

For example, many dogs have learned that the way to get their humans to be fun and engaging is to sag. I do not mean literally, of course, but rather a general sag of attitude and attention. I imagine the conversation at Dog Class goes like this:

Dog 1: How do you get your human to play so much and to hand over all those great cookies?!

Dog 2: Easy Peasy Liver Squeezy. You can head off to sniff — that works well. Or you can just stop looking like you care — you know, look around, don’t make eye contact, look all sad.

Dog 1: Wait — what?! Are you serious???!!!

Dog 2: Yep. Just act disinterested and the toys and cookies will rain down on you. Humans are so trainable!

Oh Dear.

We train dogs to disengage when we provide rewards for disengagement behavior.

That said, sometimes the dog disengages because of external factors, including handler anxiety, and even internal-to-the-dog factors that we may not understand. Nothing is really black-and-white, except maybe zebras.

We should, however, be aware that we may have inadvertently trained our dog to disengage, and we should definitely stop reinforcing disengaged behavior.

Personally, I do not believe in adding anything mean when a dog disengages. Instead, I am a fan of training what I want to see in the future — and that does not include a disengaged dog.

Unless we are intentionally using food or toys to lure during a training phase, cookies and play should happen ONLY when we have desired behavior. And even when luring, one should not release the reward when the dog is disinterested!

So what to do if we have failed to be more interesting than dirt? Here are some options — I would save #3 and use only as really needed.

1. Wait. Say nothing and see if the dog will engage. If she does, have a verbal praise party and ask for a couple of easy behaviors before the reward. You do not want to set up: sniff, look at human, get cookie. How does the dog understand that the sniff is not actually part of the behavior chain?

2. Walk away and do as above if the dog finds you.

3. End the train session — even for just a few minutes.

But I need to say this — prevention is better than intervention.

If a dog has a disengagement issue, the human needs to work harder to keep the dog engaged by being more interesting, consistently rewarding engaged behavior with play and treats, and quit training sessions before the dog has a chance to disengage.

Happy Training!

Life Without a Kitchen BUT With a Ball

We are approaching eight months of kitchen disruption from the Great Dishwasher Fiasco of 2019, but I am pleased to share that we are nearing (sort of) the end.

The floor is in and I LOVE it.

Sparkle — the countertops will be in her honor.

Suzanne is my paint color selector — the walls are a light gray with the window and door trim two shades darker. Note we painted the ceiling — also a Suzanne decision — and I am SO glad we did. We have a sink but no water or drain or dishwasher yet.

The countertops will be installed next week. Then plumbing and then lighting and somewhere in there the new dishwasher, which I have not yet selected — I have Dishwasher Trauma, as you can imagine.

We look forward to having a real kitchen again — someday.

The next photos are a sequence from Claire’s ball-walk yesterday. It goes like this — run and chase the ball, run and chase the ball, repeat…

Stop occasionally to eat snow and cool off.

More running after the ball — very effective exercise, by the way. And really — life is too short not to throw the ball…

And then at the end…

Ice baths are apparently great for your muscles. I will take her word for it.

Have a Happy and Warm Tuesday!

Random Training Thoughts

I love that the online courses we are doing keep my mind hopping with training thoughts and ideas. Here are some random thoughts for your consideration:

“Sit. Sit. Sit.” means the dog doesn’t understand the cue — and neither does the human, truth be told.

The sequence should be cue — behavior and not nag-nag-nag-nag — behavior (with a shove on the rump).

If I say “sit” and the dog wags her tail I should understand that as a sign that I have not trained my dog to sit.

Not a big deal — just train it.

How?

Start with a lure and once you can reliably get the behavior with a lure, add the word, “sit” as you lure. You get one verbal “sit” — no repeating the word — and so you want to make sure the behavior is reliable with a lure BEFORE you name it.

Same with everything — dogs do not actually speak English and so the secret is to teach the behavior first and then teach them the English word (or whatever you language you choose to use).

Can you imagine learning another language by having someone say random words at you, repeating the word over and over, and then getting annoyed when you do not understand?!

ACK!

You need that person to show you the cat, and then say the word.

Of course, you won’t know if the word means the color or some other aspect of the cat — but it is a start and much better than repeating “el gato” over and over and expecting you to understand with nary a cat in sight.

Changing environment changes everything. “Sit” in the comfort of home is not the same as “sit” in the face of distractions, and so it is normal to need to take a few steps back and use the lure again.

Remember — “Knows it at home” is a different skill set than “Knows it in the face of two giant St. Bernards.”

Repeating a word or words to encourage continuation of a desired behavior can be a great learning tool. I frequently use, “Good Stay” or “Good Sit” while working on duration of a stay, for example.

Teach the release word with the stationary behaviors. Some years again I changed what “sit” and other stationary behaviors mean — no more self-releasing.

It just did not make sense to me to teach a self-releasing behavior when in the ring, that never happens. When a dog is asked to sit, down, or stand in the ring there is always an expectation that they wait until released — so why train those behaviors any other way?

In the beginning, the sequence is quick — lure for sit, and lure for release. Once that is solid, I name both behaviors, and gradually build duration of the sit/down/stand before the release.

This has made teaching wait and stay easy peasy, as you can imagine.

What happens if the dog gets up before the release?

This: “Self,” I say, “the dog is not ready for that duration.”

When you assume good intentions of the dog, you will be prompted to examine your own training behavior and invited to create ethical and fair solutions to training glitches.