How do those of you with multiple pets manage your training?
Let me just say when you are working with a food motivated dog like Delilah, training two dogs is not easy.
The first time I took out the clicker I was determined to teach her high-five. Of course I knew nothing about shaping a behavior, I simply put the food and clicker in one hand and held up my other hand and said, “High-five.”
Delilah looked at my hand with the treat and focused on that. Sampson meanwhile was sitting on the sidelines observing my feeble attempts.
I tried again and again and all Delilah could focus on was the food in my hand. Finally Sampson’s patience was wearing thin (like mine wasn’t?). He got up, walked over, high-fived me, took the treat and went back to the sidelines.
Schooled bitch.
Delilah still didn’t get it.
I reached out to a positive trainer and asked, “What do you do when the dog is too focused on the treat?”
“Try using a treat of lesser value,” she responded.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was using a green bean.
What I learned from that experience was this: When you first start working with food and a food motivated dog, you need to let them get used to the idea of food/clicker before you actually start shaping the behavior you’re looking for.
Delilah is so siriusly food motivated, she will push Sampson aside in order to dive under the counter for a crumb.
Don’t get me wrong, Sampson has his moments as well, as can be seen in my “I heeled my dog with a chick pea” blooper below.
When I really want to work on a challenging task, I need to separate the dogs. Things like nosework in the house is easy, I put one dog in a room with a gate and work with the other dog and then swap them out.
Working on walking behaviors is a bit harder. After all, walking two dogs separately is twice the time, which I never seem to have of late.
When Sampson had his ACL injury last year, the dogs got separate walks as Sampson just couldn’t do the same distance as Delilah.
Delilah was highly reactive to dogs barking at us from their yards. When Sampson was on the DL Delilah and I focused on getting her past these yards while walking. Before we began working on this skill Delilah was constantly trying to prove she was a bad ass dog that took no shit. Delilah’s philosophy was I’ll get you before you get me. You could see the change in her demeanor as she approached the yard. (Whoever said dogs don‘t remember, is full of shit. She remembers quite well, thankyouverymuch. Much better than some people I know.)
I worked very hard with her to stop being on such high alert and we were successful at it. We reached a point where she would look to me for treats instead of looking for trouble with another dog.
Sadly Sampson has still not learned this skill. He sees another dog or a person and he starts bouncing around like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. Just Sunday he was ready to jump up on a parked car because he thought someone might be in there.
Because of this, I have to be on high alert.
I’ve come to know which homes have dogs and do my best not to be on the same side of the street as those dogs, especially if the dogs are in an e-fence. There are a couple of dogs contained by these fences that love to charge to the edge of their yard, causing me to just about shit my pants and my dogs to jump and lunge.
It’s easier to cross the street when we approach these houses. The dogs have learned when we cross and it’s almost automatic. It doesn’t stop Sampson from acting the fool, but it helps me maintain a semblance of control.
Do you see what I see?
I don’t know about you, but when I’m walking my dogs, I talk to them. Which is how I get some crazy commands.
A couple of weeks ago Sampson started his schtick and I don’t know why but “Team Sampson” came out of my mouth. And he looked at me and I said,”Come on, Team Sampson, we got this. Look at me, watch me, we got this. I’ve got cookies.” Once we were past the distraction the dogs got rewarded.
And that’s how Team Sampson was born.
Being watchful allows me to start the “Team Sampson” routine before he starts acting up, it prevents me from looking like a complete buffoon.
Which is how I found myself with Sampson bucking like a bronco this past weekend. And as I focused on “Team Sampson” I realized that Team Delilah knew the routine and was dancing along beside me, like a dream on a leash.
Now I just have to find the time to walk them individually so we can work on walking past dogs who are walking past us.
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