It is easier
2020 8 21
Training ----here we go again I think one of the most important things to put forth is that it's the constant attention The tiny details that make the big difference in a dog's whole attitude toward humans.
what started all this??? I found out someone decided it was easier to get a dog to focus on what yoU are saying by holding a cookie near the trainer’s eyes and saying “WATCH ME”
I can only imagine what the dog is thinking about having a trainer say Watch me “ while patting their nose with a cookie.
That Nose tapping concept is presented as a logical Training maneuver in many books and videos but not by Me. If I Pat my nose with a cookie and say watch Me I know very well what my dogs are thinking ……. why is she got a cookie on her nose???.... getting their attention on the cookie and not whatever else is happening…. for the same reason We don't carry cookies when we're training at all with the one exception of jumping into the kennel or the car
-----
100 years ago when there was just megan and me., At 9:00 o'clock every morning we would pile a bunch of puppies and dogs in the car and run to the fairgrounds and let them out to play for no more than 10 minutes pile 'em all back in the car and bring him home again The whole thing didn't take more than half hour and we stopped doing it. We began the slippery slope of “easier” and focus on other things having nothing to do with training dogs.
how we got going on spoon feeding I don't know but it's my belief but the lack of “crazy” details like spoon feeding makes for more training problems down the line .
thinking back to when that picture was taken Of me feeding 10 dogs with a spoon And they're all sitting there very patiently waiting somehow…That is the litter in the picture that has bella’s dog George in it…….. who is by all judges is a pretty damn perfect dog.. .. we've lost some of that with these last two litters that are about a year old - there is a very fine line In the dogs approach to learning and paying attention to what humans are doing
---
Another “usetabee” around here
.. When being transferred from their kennels in the barn To play time in the pond area dogs would just run loose & tranler to call him put him through the gate to the pond and all was good … that took a few minutes while they ran around… now it's quicker to put a leash on them and make sure that they walk politely to the pond and let them lose
sounds like what difference does that make ????well the dogs don't get any practice in Recall when they are lose ….. and on a daily basis that builds up so now you have to take time to go through recall exercises instead of letting it just happen naturally by having them run loose and calling them.
this whole topic is not a small issue …if you combine all these tiny details you end up trying to solve problems with a dog in training that should have been solved before the dog was six months old ------ now on the training comments I get “can't focus “ Which can be so bad that the dog gets wiped out as a pet
we don’t have time….i cannot be bothered…… there is an easier way… is a stupid idea… Nobody else does it …so I'll just skip it …..And the very worst one…. she'll never notice .
but eventually she does…
on almost the same concept………
I have a huge fear around here somebody will get an idea on how to do things easier or better … they don't know all the details and just try and implement the new idea.
The perfect example are the rats in the barn …We do have a few and we can put up with a few as long as they're not too prolific---------
my fear is …..some volunteer will come in And figure they ought to get rid of the rats and maybe we don't know about the way to get rid of rats or don't have time to do it so they go out and buy rat poison And put it in the barn Without my knowledge ….
their intention is good what they don't realize is that a dead rat is a chew toy for a dog who then gets the rat poison themselves…. many dogs are killed this way … doctor pol has cases all the time ------
easier can be worse.
