Often when we think about undertaking some formal training with our pets we usually have a list of things we would like them to stop doing.
These can be:
1. stop Rover from pulling on the leash
2. barking at other dogs
3. chewing up the furniture …
When we then think about how to change these behaviours it often seems natural to think of some way to stop the dog from doing them by using some form of punishment. Although we know that punishment does works to stop certain behaviour if applied properly this is not very easy to do and has side effects. So what if we thought about training our dogs in a slightly different way:
One question we often forget to ask when we think about training our dog is “what would we like him to do?” So instead of the responses mentioned above we would think how would like Rover to:
1. walk on a loose leash
2. sit and look at me as another dog walks by
3. chew on these certain toys
The other morning after my youngest daughter woke up, she came into my bedroom and lounged beside me as I did my favorite Sunday morning ritual -- drinking coffee and reading The New York Times in bed. I had worked my way through the funner sections and was reading an article about Croatian crime dramas when she asked, "why do dogs have such long noses?" I had a quick flash to the witch with great sense of smell and poor eyesight in the fairly tale of Hansel & Gretel. Then I thought about how to make a wise and analogous reply.
Finally I announced,"we use the internet, dogs use their noses." And then I thought about what I had said as Sophie climbed down from the bed onto the floor and lay with the dogs.
Last week it was adolescent behavior, this week I've heard several stories about scary encounters with off-leash dogs. One involved a family with small children and a leashed dog being rushed by FIVE off-leash dogs on a hiking trail. The five dogs consisted of four muscular bully breeds and a yappy chihuahua bringing up the rear. This family had no idea where these dogs came from, if they were friendly to dogs, adult humans and most importantly small children.
They scooped up their kids and hoped that their well-socialized white shepherd could handle the situation on her own. Jasmine, the dog, immediately dropped and rolled over. The big dogs stood over her, growled, sniffed and moved on. The little dog attacked immediately and moved on when Jasmine didn't fight back.
All of that took place before the owners sauntered around the corner with a very relaxed, "Oh, sorry."
I decided to ignore the advice in the old saying "never work with children or animals" and jump right in at the deep end yesterday!
The Theatre production of Annie were looking for a dog to play the part of Annie. Not content with the pre trained dogs we had to offer they wanted BIG, SHAGGY and bombproof around children! So we had a look at our daycare attendees and as Jasper the Goldendoodle popped his head over the partition we thought - that's the one!
So off we go bag packed with treats, balls, poop bags, towel, water, leads and harnesses. We arrive for the radio pre record and to meet the three girls who are in the running for the part of Annie. They meet the dog and all was recorded to go out on National Radio later that day. You can hear the meet and greet here about 1:09:30 into the clip: http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/archive/index.html
I spend a lot o'time in private trainings helping people understand how I grok how dogs think based both on my ongoing quest to always increase my learning both from the literature out there I get my hands on as well as hands on extensive and often intensive experience with dogs of all sizes, ages, breeds or breed mixes as well as environments. For example, why is Trip the only dog in my pack interested in TV and only in animal related programs and what could he be thinking when he watches underwater creatures like fish?????
