Julie's main complaint is that Sandy doesn't come back when she calls him. My retort to this is "Why should he?" "What's in it for him?". He also enjoys a good ole pull at the lead.
Sandy wasn't forthcoming at accepting my delicious liver cake and he wasn't going to run after a ball. He was just a wee bit unsure of this strange place with big fierce rottie smells and crazy people walking by.
I put Sandy on a long lead walked him quietly in circles changing direction when he pulled or sniffed and rewarding him with kind words and a click everytime I got a desirable behaviour. He soon came round to me and I had him turning, heeling and waiting with reasonable consistency. A few iterations later and I had him standing passively while other dogs walked by.
I then returned him to Julie who gave him a good pat and said "good boy". I asked her why she thought he was a good boy. Instantly I could see Sandy returning to his old habits.His whole
Praising dogs for doing nothing sends inconsistent and conflicting signals to them.
demeanour had changed and he was not giving me the focus and attention that he had offered me previously.
There is a very important point to be learned here. Julie was just being "nice" and was genuinely happy that Sandy had been obedient with me. Sandy, on the other hand, took Julie's praise as a signal of equal opportunities and assumed that he was finished with this training lark and could resort to his usual capers. Praising dogs for doing nothing sends inconsistent and conflicting signals to them.
These signals can be misconstrued as an act of adoration or equality or even promotion in the dogs eyes.
The timing of praise is critical when training. The dog has to realise that "good boy" means "that's the behaviour I expect" NOT "That's the training session over now so you can do what you want".
Sandy's a smashing dog who will mature into a handsome specimen with a delightful nature. Julie and Stuart simply need to send the correct signals to Sandy and he will flourish.
One of the really encouraging things I noticed in this session was that Sandy was attempting to offer the behaviour to Stuart when he was practicing. This just emphasises the dog's willingness to please and hopefully, with some work, Julie and Stuart will recognise these signs and reward him accordingly.
So - Will Sandy come back when called now? No he wont and he shouldn't even to given the chance to run free until he has been progressed further with this program. We need to get Sandy conditioned to the training environment with multiple short 5 minute sessions daily with loads of praise, issued at the correct times. We need to build up his confidence and train a few solid lead work behaviours like sit,wait down , turn before we even attempt to put him under the duress of performing a recall with distractions. I'm quietly confident about this
one.
1 comment:
It was a very impressive session - it's staggering how quickly you had Sandy doing exactly as you told him, and equally surprising how quickly he reverted to type once Julie called him a good boy.
We'll be practicing with him a couple of times a night for the next few weeks - fingers crossed!
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