If you're a professional dog trainer, you've repeated "never repeat a command" countless times. Surely it's one of life's greatest ironies. I've said it myself many a time, and I've written about how hard it is to follow that advice. How easily the second "Sit" comes after the first one, yes? I've gotten pretty good at saying things just once, although that doesn't mean I'm perfect. If I had five bucks for every time I've repeated "Lie Down" to my working Border collies I'd be a rich woman. But still, I'm better than most... and am the first to explain why it's so important not to repeat a command. (If you want your dog to respond to a signal, then repeating it simply teaches him to not respond to the first time you say it and wait for the second.) So answer me this: the man I call the Read More
“Dog Training” versus “Real Work”
So I'm working Will, my young Border Collie, last night, asking him to push the lambs into a corner so that I could catch and treat a sick one. (Lambs get diarrhea just like people and dogs do, I suspect it feels just as bad for them as it does for the rest of us. Poor little guy looked miserable.) Willie is doing really well at this kind of task, even though he can be the kind of dog who is "sticky" and won't push the sheep forward when it's needed sometimes. But he seems to love real work, when the sheep really have to get into the truck, or the lambs have to be pushed into a corner so that we can catch and treat one. How do I know? Well, I don't for sure, but his eyes seem brighter, he looks especially animated when we are done and most importantly, he is much braver when we have "real Read More
Playing with Dogs & the Olympics
I'm a little behind today, because yet again I stayed up too late watching the Olympics. Addicting, aren't they? And I'm not even that interested in sports... I was the girl who stood in right field in enforced elementary school softball games saying "Please don't hit the ball to me, please don't hit the ball to me." But I can't resist the drama of watching other people turning purposeless games into lifetime commitments and prime time excitement for the rest of us. How fitting that today our new booklet about playing with our dogs just arrived from the printer. I co-wrote it with Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist Karen London, and there is nothing like writing about how to play (and how not to play) with your dog to get you thinking about WHY we play with our dogs, HOW we play and Read More
Visual Signals before Acoustic?
"Puppy nerd" asked a great question in his or her comment: Given how visual dogs are, should one start an exercise with visual signals to help the dog get it right, and then switch to acoustic ones, or avoid visual signals altogether if you want your dog to pay attention to your voice? Well, this could keep us all busy for the next few months. I know this is a loaded issue, with people strongly advocating one or the other (mostly the latter in my experience.) There's no 'right' answer, at least not in my opinion. But then, I'm not a big advocate for there being one way to train. There are many roads, as they say, to the top of the mountain. I think what's most important is to be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of starting with visual signals. The first obvious advantage is Read More
Visual Signals Don’t Have to be Big if they are Relevant
I got back recently from doing a seminar in Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Ann Arbor Dog Training Club. What a wonderful audience; we had a fantastic time together. At least, I did, so thanks to Tammy and everyone at the club for having me. One of my favorite parts of this seminar (Both Ends of the Leash) is its focus on signals, or cues. The question we looked at in depth was: what sound or movement is actually the one that is salient to your dog? You may say "Sit," and think your dog is responding to it, but so often it's the tightening of the leash or the nod of the head to which your dog is responding. (okay, "to which" is grammatically correct, but good grief it sounds awkward!) We had a great example of that in Ann Arbor. A lovely Golden (perhaps the most perfect example of "Life Read More