Those of you who read my blog regularly know by now that I have been struggling with Deuce’s and Rio’s “performance” or interest when it comes to flying Frisbees. Well, this morning was one of those mornings. I am gathering the Frisbees and the energy to start working with these guys. Both Deuce and Rio…
Category: How Dogs Learn
Frustration
The dogs and I are playing our usual soccer game in the morning. I see Rio turn towards Deuce, as they both are trying to get to the orange ball, and she playfully grabs his tail in her mouth and gives it a tug. Deuce’s focus is on the ball and potentially landing so he’s…
Behavior Chains
John asks me in the morning how he can best teach Rio to jump from a “pretty” position. A pretty position is a dog sitting on her hind legs with the torso erect. As you can appreciate, this requires quite a bit of core strength and stability. I give John a few pointers – mostly…
Resource Guarding Between Dogs
I am having dinner while both dogs are chewing on their nightly chewy. Rio is sort of waiting for Deuce to finish his so that she can go explore to see if there is anything left that she can have. I notice this from the corner of my eye as Deuce comes into the kitchen…
Return on Investment
John and I are spending some time cleaning the leaves from the outside plants that are now living in our living room for the winter. I take a cloth with some water and I wipe off some white residue that stubbornly returns to the leaves even after we have sprayed them with some benign mix…
Other Measures of Success
Previously I wrote about ways by which we could ascertain if a behavior modification plan is actually working in changing the targeted behavior. Today, I’d like to expand on another reliable way of knowing whether success has been reached or even if we are on the right track. I recently met with a couple that…
Have We Reached Success in Training?
How can one measure whether the training done with a dog has been successful? What parameters should one have in order to evaluate if success has been reached? While the questions above are valid, we also must keep in mind that behavior and changes in behavior are quite complex which requires that we take a…
Unless The Dog Is Dead
Unless the dog is dead, he/she will respond to its environment. Case in point; Deuce who is an avid Frisbee player suddenly stopped chasing after the Frisbee. I tried several things to encourage him to go after it, but he wouldn’t. He actually just stood in place looking at me as if he had never…
Using Drugs to Help Dogs Learn
I have been working with a small dog and his “parents” to help this little one be more comfortable with anyone approaching him or picking him up. He is also concerned about riding in the car. He will shake like a leaf on a regular basis especially when one walks in his direction, and will…
Inspiration
It is Friday afternoon and I am wrapping one more work-week. I turn my attention to my own two dogs. What can I teach them next? My inspiration in working with my own dogs might vary slightly to what I do day in and out with client’s dogs. It is true that on occasion I…