Before he became a U.S. Senator, George Graham Vest appeared in court on behalf of Charles Burden, whose favorite dog Old Drum was shot by Leonidas Hornsby in 1870. Vest delivered a courtroom eulogy which made him famous and captured a bit of what we love about our canine companions.
Reproduced with permission.
The first thing that needs to be understood is that dogs and people are different enough that most of the info cannot cross lines. I do not profess to know what the appropriate procedures for people other than what I learned in first aid.
I like crazy dogs. I like over-the-top dogs, dogs that come bounding in biting at their leashes (or anything else they can cram into their mouths). I like rambunctious, nutty, go-getters that exhaust their owners. Those are my favorite dogs to train.
Most of us know that operant conditioning is the primary method of learning, and the best method for teaching across the animal kingdom. But sometimes it’s easy to forget that it works just as well on people.
I don’t even know where to start. It just seems so huge and daunting. I don’t know how to define a plan, what steps to include, or when to raise criteria. It’s just easier to go out and do something, muddle around. I know that’s not efficient, but at least it’s something.
My active young dog burst into the room and, seeing us eating, immediately checked herself and lay down. To reward this show of self-control, I tossed a piece of my candy her way. “You can’t…
Does your dog get excited or frantic when guests come to the door or when meeting new people? Unfortunately, once a dog has slipped into a frenzy, it’s difficult or impossible to get calm, thoughtful behavior again. The job of trainers and responsible owners is to prepare dogs beforehand so that these challenges are, well, less challenging.
What is a No Reward Marker (NRM), and is it a useful tool or an awful mistake? Should a good clicker trainer use an NRM, and, if so, when? It’s out there, lurking. At times you feel it stalking just behind you. At last it springs as someone asks, “Why don’t you tell your dog it was wrong?”
Funnily enough, dogs don’t speak English.
This is probably not news to most people, but there are a lot of things about language that dogs don’t understand.
I experienced a little reminder today of why we try to practice “clean” training – clicking without extraneous movements, words or signals that distract the dog or telegraph that a treat is coming. It’s important that the clicker be the most salient signal that reinforcement is on its way; otherwise, our training becomes less precise as the dog begins listening for the rustle of the treat bag or watching for our hands to move instead of paying attention to when we click. A clicker-savvy dog can also become very frustrated or confused if they aren’t getting the feedback they need.