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 his pace to go see, I'll quicken my pace and we'll run to the spot together so he doesn't get corrected for listening. It was going decently but I was finding that at the beginning of many walks, he's constantly getting to the end of his lead and correcting himself only briefly, in response to me or the collar, before pulling again.
Morning walks are especially tough. He usually walks pretty nicely for his walks later in the day but the morning walks are just so exciting for him that he doesn't care how much pressure he puts on his own neck, he just wants to go-go-go! He's generally much too excited at the beginning. It was different as well when we had a routine for a while where we were "heeling" until the dog park, and he would get rewarded with off-leash time, and then be tired out and walk right beside me on the way back. Without the dog-park in the mornings, even with designated off-leash run and play games with me, he doesn't get as tired out so there's not as much naturally calm walking on the way home to be rewarded for.
Now, I've been much more firm with him on walks in the last couple weeks. I haven't been giving him much slack on the leash and as well, generally not allowing him to pull to sniff just anything. This firmness resulted primarily because of the icey conditions and the smaller sidewalks with the snow - there isn't room for error anymore because it's unsafe.
It's hard to describe with words but my demeanor with him has been more intense on walks, probably more frustrated at times, and not tolerant of deviation from what I want. I wasn't giving him any options to fail and then make a better decision. He wasn't upset by it, his tail was still wagging on walks and he was getting ample sniffing time. Nonetheless, he still wasn't choosing to walk calmly at the beginning of our walks despite the feeling on his neck when he jolts forward too fast.
I was feeling weird about my level of firmness but I doubt it had surpassed a level of pressure that he was uncomfortable with.
Anyway, after at least a couple weeks of fairly consistent short-leash and firm, intense walking, this morning I started the walk off with positive reinforcement for walking, loose leashed, at a good pace beside me and for responding to the "heel" command. After a number of treats to get over the first part of the walk, he was definitely CHOOSING to walk at my pace and avoid the pressure of the collar. This is a huge difference from most of our morning walks lately where he's been constantly getting to the end of the leash, feeling it, correcting his pace, and then doing it again.
I don't want him to rely on treats to behave, we've been weening off of them quite a bit, so treats this morning (aka his dog food) were a really exciting thing for him. I think the combination of not having received treats lately as a reward (so the novelty was back), the firmness of our latest walks demonstrating that this is serious and I mean what I say, and my calm demeanor today because there was no time constraint, all contributed to a very well-behaved and happy pup.
Another interesting observation is that since we haven't had as much time for designated obedience sessions lately, he's been obviously trying to get my attention with trained behaviours. For example, he often sits and will give me a high 5 readily if it means I'll stop doing whatever I'm doing to pay attention to him. It could be that my long hours this week are making him more keen to get attention, which makes it easier to use my attention as a reward for tricks? Who knows. Either way, it's cute and uplifting that he's continuing to try to please me even though I haven't been asking him for many fancy behaviours lately.
We'll see how he does tomorrow and later today on walks but this morning we had a nice walk, a successful training session where he started to learn a new command, and a good game of tug-o-war after his breakfast. Loose-leash walking is incredibly hard to master but today was a wonderful demonstration of the ability of the two of us to get this skill sorted out, as well as his ability to retain information and learned behaviours without regular practice.
Overall, I'm feeling less bad about the change to his schedule at this point. My long hours and no regular dog play time for him made me feel neglectful but in reality, we're doing fine without dog parks in the morning; we're transitioning into a new routine and it's coming along. I suppose we could try some smaller group of dog play dates much later in the spring when we are at a better point in his obedience, and there isn't snow outside. I do think the snow was a huge component of our last Pierre aggression situation in the sense it prevented me from keeping up with Pierre and getting there in time before it escalated. Will put off over-analyzing it until a later date...
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 his pace to go see, I'll quicken my pace and we'll run to the spot together so he doesn't get corrected for listening. It was going decently but I was finding that at the beginning of many walks, he's constantly getting to the end of his lead and correcting himself only briefly, in response to me or the collar, before pulling again.
Morning walks are especially tough. He usually walks pretty nicely for his walks later in the day but the morning walks are just so exciting for him that he doesn't care how much pressure he puts on his own neck, he just wants to go-go-go! He's generally much too excited at the beginning. It was different as well when we had a routine for a while where we were "heeling" until the dog park, and he would get rewarded with off-leash time, and then be tired out and walk right beside me on the way back. Without the dog-park in the mornings, even with designated off-leash run and play games with me, he doesn't get as tired out so there's not as much naturally calm walking on the way home to be rewarded for.
Now, I've been much more firm with him on walks in the last couple weeks. I haven't been giving him much slack on the leash and as well, generally not allowing him to pull to sniff just anything. This firmness resulted primarily because of the icey conditions and the smaller sidewalks with the snow - there isn't room for error anymore because it's unsafe.
It's hard to describe with words but my demeanor with him has been more intense on walks, probably more frustrated at times, and not tolerant of deviation from what I want. I wasn't giving him any options to fail and then make a better decision. He wasn't upset by it, his tail was still wagging on walks and he was getting ample sniffing time. Nonetheless, he still wasn't choosing to walk calmly at the beginning of our walks despite the feeling on his neck when he jolts forward too fast.
I was feeling weird about my level of firmness but I doubt it had surpassed a level of pressure that he was uncomfortable with.
Anyway, after at least a couple weeks of fairly consistent short-leash and firm, intense walking, this morning I started the walk off with positive reinforcement for walking, loose leashed, at a good pace beside me and for responding to the "heel" command. After a number of treats to get over the first part of the walk, he was definitely CHOOSING to walk at my pace and avoid the pressure of the collar. This is a huge difference from most of our morning walks lately where he's been constantly getting to the end of the leash, feeling it, correcting his pace, and then doing it again.
I don't want him to rely on treats to behave, we've been weening off of them quite a bit, so treats this morning (aka his dog food) were a really exciting thing for him. I think the combination of not having received treats lately as a reward (so the novelty was back), the firmness of our latest walks demonstrating that this is serious and I mean what I say, and my calm demeanor today because there was no time constraint, all contributed to a very well-behaved and happy pup.
Another interesting observation is that since we haven't had as much time for designated obedience sessions lately, he's been obviously trying to get my attention with trained behaviours. For example, he often sits and will give me a high 5 readily if it means I'll stop doing whatever I'm doing to pay attention to him. It could be that my long hours this week are making him more keen to get attention, which makes it easier to use my attention as a reward for tricks? Who knows. Either way, it's cute and uplifting that he's continuing to try to please me even though I haven't been asking him for many fancy behaviours lately.
We'll see how he does tomorrow and later today on walks but this morning we had a nice walk, a successful training session where he started to learn a new command, and a good game of tug-o-war after his breakfast. Loose-leash walking is incredibly hard to master but today was a wonderful demonstration of the ability of the two of us to get this skill sorted out, as well as his ability to retain information and learned behaviours without regular practice.
Overall, I'm feeling less bad about the change to his schedule at this point. My long hours and no regular dog play time for him made me feel neglectful but in reality, we're doing fine without dog parks in the morning; we're transitioning into a new routine and it's coming along. I suppose we could try some smaller group of dog play dates much later in the spring when we are at a better point in his obedience, and there isn't snow outside. I do think the snow was a huge component of our last Pierre aggression situation in the sense it prevented me from keeping up with Pierre and getting there in time before it escalated. Will put off over-analyzing it until a later date...
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