At this point, I am about half-way through my dog-training curriculum, and the further I get, the more I’m starting to realize that I think most of the learning is going to be the hands-on stuff at the end.
I’ve gone up to work with PJ’s dog twice now. The first session was an amazing success. The most important thing to teach at the outset of training is the food lure exercise, where you train the dog to follow a treat that’s concealed in your hand. All the other training from this point requires the trainer to food-lure the dog into the various positions needed (sit, heel, etc.) Maverick picked it up pretty quickly and within probably 15-20 minutes I could get him to keep his nose against my hand while I walked around PJ’s house. I taught the exercise to PJ as well so that he could keep up the practice while I was gone.
The second session was quite a bit more disappointing. When I arrived at PJ’s, we sat and chatted for a while before I actually began the training. During this time, Mav was at the back door, making it clear that he had to go out. PJ obliged, and after a couple minutes went back to let him in again. But Mav was gone! The metal part of his chain that attaches to his collar had bent, which let his collar unhook and he had bolted out into the countryside. We tracked him down after looking for about a half-hour, but once we got him back inside, all three of us were exhausted.
My lesson was teaching him the Focus cue, where I get him in the heel position (at my left side) and looking up into my eyes, presumably waiting for my next command. Once I have another command to give, at least. The heel position was near impossible to get him in. I could get him to circle around me and face me, but not sit at my side facing forward while looking up. Even with the food lure, no real progress. After trying that for a while with little success, I attempted to just teach him Focus from sitting in front of me and facing me. The way I was instructing this is as follows: I would get a treat, show it to Mav, and hold it next to my face. I say “focus” and I wait for him to look at my eyes instead of gazing longingly at the treat. As soon as he makes eye-contact with me, I give him the treat and praise him. In theory, he will learn that he gets rewarded only when he looks at my eyes, instead of at the treat, and at that point he will start associating the word “focus” with paying attention to me. However, he was just not picking it up. Looking back now, (after finishing the chapter) there were a few things wrong with the technique I used.
First of all, showing Mav the treat first constitutes a bribe, instead of a reward. The difference being that if I show him the treat first, once he figures out what a cue means he will ONLY give the cue if he knows he’s being rewarded, instead of letting it become natural to him.
Second, both Mav and I were absolutely exhausted after his little romp so he probably just wanted to sleep. He continued to the rest of the day.
Third, when you’re teaching a dog a new command, you are NEVER supposed to repeat it. If the dog doesn’t comply and you repeat the command, it gradually shows the dog that the command has no meaning, since they got away with not having to do anything. Eventually, they will just tune you out because you’re not following through. There were a couple of times when I ended up repeating the command.
Fourth, timing has to be PERFECT. Dogs associate whatever’s happening at the EXACT TIME the reward or punishment is given with a behavior. If he makes eye-contact and I go to reward him, he’s usually focused his attention back on the treat by the time my hand goes to feed him. This is also why dogs who get physical corrections (like getting hit or pushed) by their owners never seem to learn that what they’re doing is incorrect. Aside from the fact that it’s just cruel, instead of associating the fact that they peed on the floor four hours ago with the punishment, they associate the punishment with the approach of a person. In essence, they learn that people are bad and are threats to their safety, which makes the dog fearful and/or aggressive, which can pose a danger to anyone in the home. See how that links together? Anyway, that’s way off topic.
My other main concern is that PJ’s so far away. About an hour/hour and a half drive, meaning that I don’t always have the time or ability to travel that far for training. Dog training is one of those things where consistency and daily lessons are required and I can usually only get up there once a week at most. My worry here is that Mav is going to forget some of his training unless I keep teaching PJ how to do it every practice session.
I’m heading up there again tomorrow, so I’m hoping that this lesson runs a bit smoother.
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