TRAINING......
2021 4 26
Dog training is sorting out purity of thought.
I have just done exactly what I've told you people never to do------ I have very carefully taught lockie not to retrieve anything----- I have done this before---- I do it every once in a while and it's bad .. the exact details ??? -----he's mouthy so I threw one of my brand new monkey fists across the floor and he chased it and he picked it up and I said good boy good boy good boy and as he came toward me he dropped it and I said that was good boy I picked it up and TOSSED IT.... said go get it again ------ wrong ...Because in his head the last good boy good boy good boy I said was just after he dropped it so now he's got it in his head that he's a good boy to drop it and in my head I'm thinking Oh no just a few minutes ago he went and got it but that's long gone out of his head ----he's dealing only with the current set of instructions which was to drop it now I can't even put the thing in his mouth -------I've been this road so many times before it's pitiful ------I get so excited that they've actually picked something up in their mouth that I praise them too many times that it's often after they've dropped it ..
case in point----getting the basket for mail call...... JIMINEY----- again mouthy dog ----pick up anything --run around with it and I hit the wrong button at the wrong time and praised him just as he dropped it so he figured dropping whatever he had in his mouth was the critical thing. So in his head....maybe he wasn't supposed to pick it up --------I finally spent a lot of time putting the basket in his mouth and praising praising praising as I tell him to hold it and then taught him to drop it at which point he got it------- he figured out the good thing was to drop it when he was told to drop it ... it got further complicated by my setting the basket on a shelf and tell him no don't don't pick it up just now ...so the way it is now works is if we put it up on a shelf he won't touch it ------if we put it on the floor he'll grab it and come bring it to me for Mail call --------you gotta be very careful what you're teaching these dogs because he was very carefully taught not to take something off the shelf----- so that don't wonder why he refuses to pick up the basket if it's sitting on a shelf---------
there is that purity of thought that sometimes is difficult to sort out ...I have a feeling that the first time lockie picked up the monkey fist and ran into the living room with it I said “ Judy he's got my monkey fist”. or whatever ----forgetting that she would very rightly take it from him and bring it to me which apparently she did and probably said oh give it to me ---being good boy ---so we let go of it there again that let it go of it was the critical part THAT he got praised for doing and NOW he will NOT pick it up at all he won't even let me put it in his mouth AND TURNS HIS HEAD SIDEWAYS WHEN I PICK IT UP CLEARLY TELLILNG ME..” YOU are nuts !!”
the current result in my training effort is... I finally got him to lie down and chew on the monkey fist... the phone rang.. wrong number..and by the time I turned around h e had eaten the rope handle.—it is 6 inches of ¼ inch cotton... I hope it goes thru.
Here's another training faux pas of which I'm not usually guilty ....many people teach their dog to lie down for example------ and they give him a cookie and they walk away--- I have two problems with that -----once you start feeding cookies you've tuned the dogs head to l the cookies and not whatever they're supposed to be learning-------- so I find that even carrying cookies is detrimental to actually learning anything ----but the second problem and even worse is that most people walk away and forget the dog or continue talking or whatever and the dog finally gets up and wanders off------ well in that case what you've taught the dog to do is to decide for himself when he can stop doing whatever you've told him to do---------- that can be a very difficult thing to overcome --- so if you've given a dog a command of some kind you really have to pay attention to the fact that you need to tell them when they are released from that command with an OK or in polite society it's always impressive to say” thank you you can go now “---I have watched obedience training classes where they don't tell the dog when they're off duty and that can be very confusing and confusion. can just mean months of trying to undo what you did by mistake like telling lockie he was a good boy for dropping them monkey fist .
I do have a feeling ----that if you very carefully plan the young puppy as we try to do with spoon feeding . you're basically programming the young pup to learn and part of that learning is to know when it's recess or they can go do something else ..... my way of releasing is to say OK but more often is to spread my fingers and wave it in front of their faces 'cause I'm very often dealing with more than one puppe at a time .
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with that mind I really must be in on the 4:00 o'clock feeding ---- yesterday it was a disaster ..well the real problem is cindy is entirely too short to deal with four great Danes all at once and carry food dishes ... it should be absolutely no problem and I think I better pay attention to that for a few days--- what should happen is we. should put out the feeders---- those raised feeders that we use---- put a dog at each one and tell him to stay there ---then go get the dishes ---otherwise you have a potential dogfight going on again and we already know that that can be a problem ----it didn't evolve into a dogfight yesterday ----chaos very nicely let locky eat her dinner because by then she'd stuck her face in somebody else's --- it was not a controlled situation .. the presence of food in itself can cause a flashpoint for dog behavior ----so it's the ideal time to get control of it ..
that's why so many places have you teach the dog to sit then you put the food down and tell him it's OK to eat it and that routine is fine I need to get ahead of that one ----at one point yesterday there were all six dogs in the living room ---- that's a lot ---- probably not the best idea in the world ---- as it turned out we finally took CC down to the barn as she's the least controllable of the whole bunch---- she's like her mother .
Photo op of the day is Josh at the beach... look at that smile both Josh is and the dog Daisy------ happy dog ---happy kid perfect situation---- now to try and figure out -----which of the next bunch of pups could be a kids dog ... they gotta be pretty bombproof and the kid has to take care of the dog so they become a bonded pair
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Good morning! Josh and Daisy enjoyed an afternoon at the beach on Friday. Never has he been able to explore the water, tide pools and shoreline debris completely on his own two (plus her four) feet! Thank you to everyone at SDP
