You Win Some, You Lose Some….Day Two Hundred, Eighty Two

September 8, 2011 By Jodi

Tonight was the very first class held in our new training center. I am still of the mind that positive reinforcement is better than force, so I had a plastic baggie with some treats in my pocket.

As is the custom, Hubby takes Sampson and I take Delilah. I’m not sure what opinions you have gathered about Delilah, but I am here to tell you in class, Delilah is a stubborn lab. She will sit, but it is difficult to get her into a down.

Before I was educated in the power of positive reinforcement I am ashamed to say, I bought into the traditional methods of training. I would NEVER do something I felt was wrong, but I did buy into the pushing and pulling to get them to do my bidding. Having seen the light I am eager to help others see how positive reinforcement is a much better method of teaching.

That being said, when I saw a classmate struggling to get her lab into a down, I went over treat in hand, knelt down in front of him and said, “Down.” It took about 20 seconds, but he did go into a down. I rewarded him with the bit of dried salmon I had, gave him the “Stay” command and walked away. He got up after a few seconds. I went back over, repeated the process and this time he stayed down.

It was then time for a potty break after which I went up to his “mom” and offered her a couple of my treats, she hesitated a bit and then refused. I though to myself as we drove off after class, she would much rather pull on her dog’s neck with his choke collar, then reward him with food. It made me feel really sad.

The interesting thing about this whole story is Pamela over at Something Wagging just this morning had a post about this very topic, which left me wondering how I would react in a similar situation.

Lo and behold I found out.

Some pictures from class.

Miss Delilah

Mr. Sampson

The dog I tried to help.

Chuck and Orbit

The Power of Positive Reinforcement…Day Two Hundred, Eighty One

September 7, 2011 By Jodi

Today Hubby came with us on our walk, I was a bit nervous because he tends to be very critical of my training methods. Hubby doesn’t believe the dogs should have treats every time they come up to me. I feel if they get a treat every time they come to me, it reinforces that good things happen when they are around me.

I’m still not really sure if I should give them treats if they come to me on their own accord, but that’s what I’ve been doing and it seems to be working. The thing I’m finding about using positive reinforcement during our hikes is there are certain food items that are more valuable than others.

So far I’ve used a bunch of different treats, People Crackers, Hot Dogs, Roast Beef, Freeze-Dried Salmon, Ground Beef and Duck that looks like a really long, really fat Slim Jim. By far the treat that works best for Delilah is Roast or Ground Beef. She would get about 50 feet away from me, turn around to look at me and if I gave her the slightest bit of encouragement, back she came. Every time.

I still have her on the check cord which also seems to be working well for her. Today we walked close by the area she is prone to taking off in. She turned and took a few steps in the wrong direction and we called her back and she came!

Our walk was cut short because it started raining really hard, but I wanted to reward her for being such a good girl (and also help tire her out a bit) so we had a quick came of fetch in the field.

Wet but happy.

This is a blogpaws blog hop, you can get your code here http://www.blogpaws.com/2011/09/wordless-wednesday-some-reasons-to-get-your-2012-blogpaws-ticket-early.html

Doggie Daycare…Day Two Hundred, Eighty

September 6, 2011 By Jodi

Today was the big day; our training center opened and Sampson and Delilah went back to daycare!

It amazes me that we can be out of the habit for so long, but as soon as I grabbed the dog’s collars this morning they jumped at the chance for adventure. Sampson has a habit of wanting me to pet him in the car, he stands in the back with his head between the two front seats and swats me with his big paw, until I pet him.

As we approached daycare I said, “We’re here” and he ran to the back and stuck his head eagerly out the window.

Puppy friends greeted them at the gate and I left them running and playing, happy barks following me out the door.

Besides running, wrestling and playing the order of business for today was putting in the dog friendly floor. I have it on good authority that the dogs were a big help. 😉