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Peemail

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 excel at feeling like a failure, so I often get mad at myself for all the mistakes I'm making with Pierre's training. This morning, I was wondering if because I'm maybe not being very consistent with the cues I give him on our walk that I should re-evaluate our "perfect heeling" to "sniffing the ground" ratio.

I googled some stuff for validation or advice and found:

The Proper Way of Walking your Dog
Really great suggestions all around. Would generally agree with everything this guide says.
Except for...
"The dog should not sniff the ground and relieve himself where he pleases for the sake of marking; his job while walking is to concentrate on following his handler. When walking the dog you can allow it to tip you off of when it has to go to the bathroom and allow it to go if the spot is an acceptable place for a dog to relieve itself. The thing you need to watch for and use your judgement is whether or not the dog is relieving itself because it has to go to the bathroom or if it is simply trying to mark the area. It is ok if the dog tells you it has to go to the bathroom and to allow it to go, but it is not acceptable to allow a dog to mark its scent all over for the sake of marking on the walk."


My first reaction unfortunately was not, "I don't agree that this is necessary for our life", it was, "oh I can't believe I've been letting Pierre do that I'm so bad at everything".

Thankfully I continued on the Google and rediscovered an entry on Patricia McConnell's blog, Take Your Dog on a Sniff.  In the comments section, someone coined the term, "peemail", which I now love, and a number of other individuals shared my strategy of having a verbal cue for going to smell stuff during walks. Ahhh, yes, the sweet smell of validation.

I try to only work with Pierre when I’m in a decent mood with enough energy, or if my bad mood can be easily remedied by Pierre’s goofy face. I can get caught up in a neurotic quest for perfection in working with Pierre sometimes, when I find it personally offensive when he doesn't care about my requests. I try with all my might to keep that internal, because I never want to be in a position where I'm mad at him for being a dog.

Training needs to be fun for him, and probably for me too, or we won't get anywhere.

It's so easy to forget that there are BILLIONS of ways to train your dog and that each dog is an individual. Everything is fine. Pierre is perfect.












Comments

  1. datsdewody14 October 2016 at 09:47

    "I excel at feeling like a failure" - lovin that strengths-based approach there Rebecca

    ReplyDelete

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