Dogs routinely go out of their way to go over and above what we expect. It is always amazing what lengths a dog will go to when he’s trained with positive reinforcement. And it always puts a smile on my face to see a truly happy dog who’s having fun by working hard.
Dogs are born with the ability to stand, sit, down, roll over, lift their paw, and many other behaviors that we take credit for teaching them. However, we say it all the time. “I taught my dog to sit.” No… not so much. The dog came knowing how to do this physical motion. We just put it on cue. It’s not like the dog had no idea how to sit, so we showed him the motion. Or the dog slapped his forehead in some euphoric moment of awakening barking “Eureka! I didn’t know I could do that!” No… not really. The dog already knew he was perfectly capable of sitting. What we teach is that it can pay to sit on cue.
Lately I’ve seen a lot of cases where a client was trying to extinguish a behavior but instead created a wicked duration with intensity. For some reason I always think of a small child tugging on his mom’s shirt saying, “Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!” until the mom turns around and says, “WHAT?!?!!” Which has now taught the kid this works.
Sometimes we trainers are asked to train some very silly things. And sometimes not everything is realistically solved by training. And in fact, there is some stuff not worth training. And there is nothing wrong with management.
I just got this from a trainer friend of mine Pen Brown (a great trainer in the DC area). I’m not sure who created it originally, but I’d love to give them credit and shake their hand! Hello: This is the Magic Wand Dog Training Center, we are unable to come to the phone but [...]
So my Bernese Mountain Dog is always hot. Day or night, he thinks global warming does exist. I honesty think the happiest weather he’s seen was this past winter’s blizzard. What I noticed was he learns the coldest place in the house, friend’s house, hotel, etc. without any instructions from anyone. He figures this out on his own because he is motivated by his desire for the cold. (And I call this spot his “happy place.”)
Have a question? Or Two? Or ten? Join us for “Coffee & Questions.” A casual Q&A about dog behavior Sunday, August 29th, 2010 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. This is a FREE event open to everyone. Friendly dogs welcome but not required to attend.
This post goes out to all those velcro dogs who should have come with the same warning as crazy glue.
So my big fat cat Spartacus just went through one heck of a urinary dilemma. He had crystals, UTI, bacteria infection, etc. He was also one of the lucky kitties who survived a total blockage. During all this he started to pee outside the litter box. So, I did everything I knew to do. Step #1 – Observe ALL behavior. This is how I noticed…
Dogs are just like most other animals, including us. So it always makes me smile when I hear the, “I want my dog to want to please me” statement. If you want me to give it to you straight, here it is:
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