I have two dogs. One is a well bred puppy from Pamelot Kennels in Georgia. His temperament and drive are stellar. Sadly he came with knees that did were off in their alignment, causing Anterior Cruciate tears. There is surgery to repair this, one knee has been done, and the other knee is about to be done as well. Right now, he is unable to compete in obedience, and though the surgery will improve Leon's movement immensely, it may never loosen up his knees enough to sit comfortably for long periods of time. We will see in about next spring of 2009 when he is recovered.
Jack was puppy store bred (most likely meaning from mills), and tore his way through a few homes quite readily before finding himself at Doberman Rescue. Because he did not warm up quick enough with treats and love, he went through two more homes before he was "returned" yet again. Jack had not yet found the person who truly loved him, for well him. His loyalty, goofiness, clown ways, athletic ability, hunting ability, intelligence, had all gone unnoticed, because he was a difficult boy. I actually do feel sorry for the owners that he went through, that had no idea how to nurture and grow this personality into a partner. My point is, he is a different dog than Leon. I love him for who he is, the same as I love Leon.
With Leon, you can relax and have him run with other dogs, kids, bunnies, butterflies whatever. He should have been my demo dog and competition partner, as he is most suited temperament wise to it. I would have had a lot less work to do. On the other hand, I love the challenge, and Jack loves the work. I have to be very diligent and expect better than I can give in my training regime with Jack. It's more important to him and his mental health than it is to me. Sure, I could simply separate him more from life and not deal with it. "Oh him, that's my socially and behaviorally challenged dog, poor thing, we don't let him out with others". Or we could say "sorry he went after your dog, but dogs will be dogs". We do neither of those things and take our responsibility to Jack very seriously. We also take our responsibility to dog issues, the overall health of dog ownership long term, and the long term health and enjoyment of Jack's life to him.
My way may not seem very fun to you. To me, I enjoy training, the patience, the consistency, the long term improvement it provides to the life of the dog. For me, that's fun. Seeing clients again sitting on a couch with their two dogs that were fighting last year, and knowing that one of those dogs was being considered to be put asleep. Seeing those pictures, and knowing I trained for the real life that dog was going to be living, is the best reward and fun that I can have. The fact that my boarders are all training client based, and I see my old friends often that I formed a very careful bond of partnership with, also priceless. We are able to hang out in a non training environment thanks to the work and maintenance that has gone on with newly informed owners. These dogs were all helped by both my very differently temperamented dogs as well. My success is shared with their partnership with me. It does not always come easily.
Leon still needs something to occupy him whether he is injured or in recovery. I won't allow him to re-injure himself when surgery comes, but there are plenty of on the floor games to play when he is awake and restless. We went through this before last Spring. Recently, since I have been training Jack using the Open Koehler book for retrieve and all the open exercises, I thought what fun it would be to train Leon alternately to pick things up his clumsy owner drops.
These sort of commands are a bit different than recall, heel, or stationary commands. Those commands can stop serious injury to yourself and stop your dog from injuring or killing himself inadvertently. Not just if your near traffic, but the open woods can provide all sorts of dangers (barbed wire, bears, deer---believe it or not can be aggressive during mating season, unexpected terrain with holes in it, et); and so your dog MUST obey. Also, although many behaviorists or people that follow the Purely Positive Political movement don't understand how well developed and reliable commands such as these help in behavior modification, they are the basis of being able to redirect your dog to more appropriate behavior, with your help and partnership, of course. So these commands are not necessarily something your dog needs to learn in a rush, or be stopped from not listening to them regardless.
Leon has begun with picking up his ringy and sticky toys. Once he learned get meant, well pick it up, it was on to the trickier part of having Leon bring back the object. Why is it tricky? Well, I play the chase game with him a lot, as I have known for some time the possibility of him competing will be remote (oh this will be a good pun later for what I have started him doing). So all this time throwing things and picking them up have been followed by a rousing game of chase by me and by the other dogs. There are a couple of ways that I can do this. If he is engaged very much, then if I run away from him he will follow, I slow down, turn say give and be sure the stick or whatever ends up in my hand. Then I throw and we do all over again. Now sometimes, there are other distractions where we are that make his concentration iffy on the job at hand. At those points, introducing treats renews the interest in the game. Like I said with Leon, there is no danger that he is going to start giving anyone any sideways looks as the treats start to flow. Also nice that everyone else involved can join in on the treats (except Jack and Devon who I will speak about at another time).
It's wise to start any training program one on one first. That way you eliminate as many distractions as you need to, but are able to engage the dog. Leon and I did something new today. I started to introduce him to the concept of picking up not toys, but whatever his clumsy owner might drop (like a remote, book et). I started out with different toys first. First the ball, then the bone, then the ring et. Once he learned it was the same rules for each toy (that is I go get it, then I need to not just fling it at my owner but drop it in her hand--I pretend I am blind and close my eyes so I don't cheat----and then comes out my reward). Then I started dropping or throwing the remote. I also started doing this from different positions (standing, sitting et). So now I have revised the criteria of the task to be a bit more complicated. It took Leon a little while to find the best way to pick up the remote, and then longer for him to realize flinging it at me was not what I was looking for LOL. I help and give hints along the way, but try to avoid learned helplessness (that is the act of directing him every minute, letting him take the initiative).
With daycare clients, if I am training, they normally want to be involved. It's nice because with a dog like Leon, you can relax and make a line of dogs and let everyone learn a task for the day. Daycare gets bored if they are left to their own devices. You really shouldn't just leave them in the same room or yard everyday, if your goal is to truly entertain them for the day. A little training on a new trick, combined to a walk to the creek for a swim, and you have suddenly snoozing doggies. So training with Leon is about a thousand times different than training with Jack.
For instance, Jack is now possessive of the dumbbell (for a short time while we revisit his foundation), because although it's very deliberate work for a working retrieve, it's work Jack likes. Now if you combined it with treats at this point while his pupils dialate for the joy yet guarding of his new job, you are about to create a disaster and get someone or something injured. Making sure his eye contact remains on you, and not the dog that is not even thinking about the dumbbell but wandering in your direction, is very important. It's real important, because in the Spring when he is retrieving it unleashed over jumps, he can't be thinking of the owner and dog looking on with interest at HIS job. Jack has a lot of things that he thought were his. At one point, he started thinking the daycare human owners that came here were his, to the point that he started eyeing up their dogs if they approached their own owners (a solid place command is very helpful for this sort of behavior combined with a whole training plan). Every six months or so, it's something different, and then that's improved. Jack is a work in progress that is more complex than your average dog. Yet, he does want to please, and will work for those good boys. He really wants and needs to understand what the human thinks is "good" and what the human finds unacceptable. He doesn't understand that I find it unacceptable mostly for his own safety. It's up to me to let him know what I will not tolerate.
Anyhow, method two goes slower and is much more deliberate and time consuming in creating each step. Assuming you do your homework and do it right, there is no reason to be "harsh" on the dog (this usually happens when someone hasn't done their homework and wants to rush off to the "fun" part, and therefore overtaxes their dog, gets frustrated and deals with them harshly). In fact, it's a very gentle method whose results create confidence and assurance in a dog. Even with a dog of as many dominant traits as a Jackie has, his confidence has to come from the fact that I have his back, and with our good partnership I will not let him be put in an untenable position. Sometimes, easier said than done sometimes. I am more apt to now communicate to owners, that it's not okay for their dog to rudely run up to my dog. That the fact that he hasn't done anything about it, has to do with training not a particularly patient temperament. Don't forget, he could be thinking about protecting me too!! It's my job to let him know, not only will I not force him to deal with a dog that will make him uncomfortable, but he doesn't need to worry about me as I will protect myself. This means coming out of your shell, and communicating to people, no it's not just dogs being dogs. You need to be responsible and in control. Even if a dog is on a flexi or leash, you are not in control if you allow your dog to drag you everywhere, or you are forced to drop the leash. Those actions are not okay with me, because you are putting me and my dog in danger.
Although Leon is not likely to reacte, I also don't want a dog being rough with him and taking advantage of his good nature. Dogs should not be dashing up to each other unless permission is given by the owner. A dog should be under voice control both off and on the leash. This is why I raise my standard all the time, and dog owners should be raising their standards of responsibility and training as well.
Any how method two first starts with the gentle insertion of the dumbbell. The Open Koehler book is contigent upon you having completed your Novice work. So if you are working with a squirming dog that is not calm and collected, then you are going about following any sort of Koehler method all wrong. You have not done your homework. Some people believe a calm and confident dog has been beaten into this mold, rather than recognizing a calm and trusting dog that has been lovingly molded. The beginning of the retrieve starts with you opening your dogs mouth, and placing the dumbbell behind the dogs teeth, right where you are going to want it at the end of the training:) You lovingly praise your dog for letting you open his mouth and put the dumbbell in. Steps that name the commands (I use take and out) and just the starting point of the whole process are done with care and love. Method one of play fetching leaves large gaping holes in the process that would bite me later on working. Method two is slower, but works out an even more lovely relationship of partnership and an incredibly reliable retrieve. Although it may be "fun" to start the jump now, this method is reliant upon the building of the language ever step of the way. So starting the jump now would be selfish on the owners part, and muddy up the process of showing your dog efficiently, effectively, and lovingly what you want. It's the difference between using this as a reliable command, and using the other as a play command.
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