Don't tell my dog that I'm a mess

My general idea for writing today was to explore how he reacts to corrective methods vs. treat/positive reinforcement and our attempts of finding a good combination of the two that work for us. It's hard to keep track, objectively, of the behaviours that I do and how he responds and vice versa. Specifically, with leashed walks. At the beginning I  working on his heeling during walks with more of a combination of treats for good behaviour and a, "Hey!" cue if he's starting to pull, and the collar correction that he gets on his own if he pulls. I generally try to give him verbal cues for him to be able to respond to, and avoid feeling the collar pressure, as well as ensuring that the collar pressure only comes when he's out of line. So, for example, "hey!" was his cue of "you're starting to pull", which gives him the opportunity to respond before feeling the full pressure of the collar. Or, if I tell him, "go see!" and he quickens...

Doing some more weird stuff in my spare time. I'm trying to teach Pierre fun things and to challenge both of our minds to figure out how to communicate better. This ding-a-ling is a smart guy and he's very food-motivated. Excuse the terrible video - I'm trying to take more videos of our training practice so I can see the awkward gestures I'm doing and figure out what's working and what isn't. Things he's working on (though not necessarily in this video): - Solidifying his "sit pretty"; we're practicing it regularly so he eventually can start balancing on his own. - knowing what it means when I ask for a "stand". He had it for a little bit but we let it slide by accident, so we're trying to get to the point where I can give him a random order of, "stand" "sit" and "down" without his brain exploding. - "Down" and "sit" from farther away. Right now, if he's in a sit ...

The most exciting parts of dog training are at the beginning when they just start bonding with you, looking genuinely proud when you’re happy, when they first learn their name and how to do those first few tricks. Everything is treat-based and you are just luring them around into positions you want and feeling positive and successful. You tell all your friends your going to quit your job and become a dog trainer... is that just me? Some of the defeating parts are tackling the annoying, ingrained behaviours, especially when adopting an adult dog, or, when, your dog has started to learn the mistakes you make and to recognize the things they can get away with. --  Pierre with his friend, Joey Bats Pierre’s most challenging behaviour has long been learning how to navigate his excitement levels and his dog reactivity.   When we first got Pierre, the vague impression I had heard about him was that he was, “dominant with other dogs and will not be good in dog pa...

On walks, I don't want him to yank my arm in every direction, mark everything, or generally just to think that he calls the shots, but I do want him to enjoy himself. Telling him, “ go see! ” and having him respond by smelling some sweet peemail and looking back at me with pure happiness while he’s kicking his own pee smell around a patch of grass, is pretty heartwarming.   It’s an absurd little interaction but I like to think that it strengthens our bond - it's also a good functional reward for a well-behaved pupper. I read a number of of books, most noteably, Inside of a Dog , by Alexandra Horowitz, and The Other End of The Leash by Patricia McConnell, that explain how important the olfactory world is to dogs and the importance of letting your dog enjoy being a dog. Pierre is extremely scent driven, I assume it's because he has some kind of setter or spaniel in him, so I definitely think it would be cruel to force him to ignore the wonderful world around him. I e...

Something I noticed with Oliver (and I will probably explore Oliver’s learning specifically in another post because I have a lot of useless information about it) is that he started to learn cues that I didn’t even realize I was using. I tend to talk to my dogs on our walks, just because I’m a weirdo, and the main verbal cue Oliver picked up was, “This way!” I would often say it if he was sniffing something or otherwise distracted and I was doing something like changing directions. Because Oliver didn’t get a lot of regular training practice in places with distractions, his recall was terrible for a while.   To be honest, it probably still is but we don’t put him in situations where he will get in trouble anymore. “Come” didn’t mean a whole lot to him if there was something smellier and more fun. I found out on a whim, that if I yelled, “OLIVER. THIS WAY” if he was off leash, he would come running. It was a nice surprise.       I realized eventua...

Is a real comeback I had to another child when I was approximately 6 years old. I fucking loved dogs immediately. I emerged from the womb and took up my place crawling around with my grandmother's dog, Muffin, an alleged Rottweiler/Shepherd but I'm almost 100% that sweet Muffy was mostly Rhodesian Ridgeback. Let's just delve right into my dog snobbery then, I guess. My family got our first rescue black lab, Tabby, when I was four. She took me for walks when I was really young, maybe six? The neighbours thought it was questionable that I was out walking this chubby babe by myself, and it probably was, but I loved it so much. At home, I would get her to stay.. go hide.. and tell her to come and find me. She would get lots of treats when she did and I would make the hiding places harder and harder. I didn't realize at the time, obviously, that this is a legitimately helpful training technique. She was amazing. A true gem, she had a lot of beautiful retriever traits, ...