We can do this the easy way, or....
I tend to split training into two categories: trick training and "life skills" training. Tricks are cute, largely unecessary things your dog learns to do for food and for fun. Life skills translate into good manners and good sense. Life skills are also generally conceived as don'ts: Don't bark all the time, Don't beg for food, Don't eat disgusting garbage off the ground, etc.
To some degree this is a false distinction. For instance, Don't Eat Disgusting Garbage can be translated into Drop It / Leave It. Don't Bark Your Head Off can be taught as Quiet. However, this distinction persists in my head, I think because while Thor has an impressive set of tricks under his belt, he still often seems neurotic, barky, and impulsive.
Most of my training with Thor is very explicit. I set aside time to teach him to Drop It. We practice, practice, practice, and then I find myself shrieking Drop It every five minutes on a walk, while Thor carefully considers whether his discovery tastes better than the treat he'll get if he obeys me. I find myself struggling to be consistent, and struggling to get him consistent.
On the other hand, I have managed to conceive other behaviors in a way that's relatively easy to teach. For instance, whenever I eat, I will give Thor a tiny bit of my food -- but only if he is lying down. This is pretty painless. I can ignore him and enjoy my food if he's not lying down, or I can reward him for his good behavior. Thor learned pretty quickly that lying down and quietly waiting is much more effective than begging.
Similarly, Thor has a tendency to run ahead of me every time we go up or down stairs. I didn't like this, so every time he would match my pace, I'd praise him, and if he matched my pace the whole way, I'd give him a treat afterward. Today, I have a dog that religiously stays one step behind me on stairs. He's also learning that this translates on downward slopes.
I had originally tried to train both of these behaviors in different ways. For anti-begging, I would try to make him Stay for one to two minutes, which he is very capable of doing, but it ended up frustrating both of us. I was constantly timing him while I ate, and he was constantly breaking his Stay. On stairs, I would say "ah ah ah" and physically block him from moving ahead.
I think that these more explicit ways would have worked eventually. However, they required a lot more focus on my part, and they were just not as much fun. By relaxing and looking for opportunities to reward Thor, we both feel like we've won: I get good behavior, Thor gets a treat.
I guess what I am saying is, if you can't teach your dog one way, try another. And don't assume it has to be hard work for either of you.
Now go have a cookie.
To some degree this is a false distinction. For instance, Don't Eat Disgusting Garbage can be translated into Drop It / Leave It. Don't Bark Your Head Off can be taught as Quiet. However, this distinction persists in my head, I think because while Thor has an impressive set of tricks under his belt, he still often seems neurotic, barky, and impulsive.
Most of my training with Thor is very explicit. I set aside time to teach him to Drop It. We practice, practice, practice, and then I find myself shrieking Drop It every five minutes on a walk, while Thor carefully considers whether his discovery tastes better than the treat he'll get if he obeys me. I find myself struggling to be consistent, and struggling to get him consistent.
On the other hand, I have managed to conceive other behaviors in a way that's relatively easy to teach. For instance, whenever I eat, I will give Thor a tiny bit of my food -- but only if he is lying down. This is pretty painless. I can ignore him and enjoy my food if he's not lying down, or I can reward him for his good behavior. Thor learned pretty quickly that lying down and quietly waiting is much more effective than begging.
Similarly, Thor has a tendency to run ahead of me every time we go up or down stairs. I didn't like this, so every time he would match my pace, I'd praise him, and if he matched my pace the whole way, I'd give him a treat afterward. Today, I have a dog that religiously stays one step behind me on stairs. He's also learning that this translates on downward slopes.
I had originally tried to train both of these behaviors in different ways. For anti-begging, I would try to make him Stay for one to two minutes, which he is very capable of doing, but it ended up frustrating both of us. I was constantly timing him while I ate, and he was constantly breaking his Stay. On stairs, I would say "ah ah ah" and physically block him from moving ahead.
I think that these more explicit ways would have worked eventually. However, they required a lot more focus on my part, and they were just not as much fun. By relaxing and looking for opportunities to reward Thor, we both feel like we've won: I get good behavior, Thor gets a treat.
I guess what I am saying is, if you can't teach your dog one way, try another. And don't assume it has to be hard work for either of you.
Now go have a cookie.
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Beautiful, as usual. I like the distinction you make between tricks and life skills. I always used to get mad when people considered tricks as a lesser skill than an obedience skill, as though teaching an obedience skill was somehow more difficult or nobler. I think a taught behavior is a taught behavior, whether it's balancing a cookie on the dog's nose or doing an emergency STAY because a car is coming. I can appreciate your distinction because you don't try to diminish the difficulty of teaching a trick. | |
Posted 10-10-2010 at 09:53 PM by alaskayorkie |