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Originally Posted by Gillykat  Just ordered Tamar Geller's book  I'll give it a good read from cover to cover to refresh my brain as the last time I had a puppy was in 1990 when we got our Jack Russells Buster & Heidi  |
I like Geller's book very much. She teaches positive reinforcement along with using a lot of love in training and interacting with dogs. I'm so thankful most dog-training experts no longer punish dogs as a teaching tool if they get a command wrong or can't focus at a session. I simply could never train using punishment and I don't know how people used to do it. It must have been grim.
Tibbe was a wild hare when I first got him at age 9 mos., totally kennel crazy, very, very fearful of most things and very unsocialized but positive reinforcement obedience training and being lovingly persistent with boundaries changed him totally. Now he is training me and if he does something for which he used to get a little treat, such as shushing when he's barking and I tell him "Quiet", he'll stand in front of me and insist on his rights until he gets his payoff for doing right if I don't get it right away!!! Oh, if I'm down with my hip and on the ice pack, maybe really nauseated from medicine or something right then, and I say "Wait just a bit and Mommie will get your treat, okay?", he'll eye me suspiciously but back off, clearly not happy but he does stop insisting. But when I do get up, I head right for the treat dish and he gets his
payment and I always connect it to the command, even 30 minutes later, as I hand him his treat, I'll say "Good Quiet" and make that effort to connect the treat to the good thing he did - go quiet when told to when barking. If I should forget when I get up and do something else instead(happens occasionally), such as answer the door or go to the bathroom, he remembers! He's right back planted in the middle of the den floor starring at me like a laser beam and standing up for his rights to get that postponed treat. He never forgets unless he falls asleep. He'll even growl if I don't acknowledge him. And he stomps his foot if he has to wait long. Soon as I do see or acknowledge him standing there with that hard determined look in his eyes, I remember and for sure get back up and get him his payoff. Then he's happy and feels he's gotten his due and he goes on about his business. But he's trained me to follow through no matter what.