When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [35]
1. You are training him to think about how to do things that please you (and cause you give to him reinforcers); and
2. You are conditioning him to have a general feeling of happiness and excitement about doing things that you want him to do. Furthermore, you will be conditioning him to have a feeling of happiness and excitement about you in general, since you are the gateway to everything he loves.
In Chapter Nine, you will use hot activities to teach basic foundation behaviors. For now, just understand how and why it is important to identify, control, and use hot reinforcers.
Terriers generally prefer to be on their feet and busy rather than lying down and waiting. With a ball as a reinforcer, however, Nicky will plant himself on the ground next to me.
Bringing the Mountain to Mohammed
Getting in Front of Your Dog
When I was struggling with training my first Bull Terrier, I kept reading and hearing that I had to find out what was motivating to my dog and keep my training sessions fun. While there is nothing wrong with this advice, it is not particularly helpful, either. It is more a statement of the problem than the solution to the problem. You certainly do have to find out what motivates your dog, and training has to be fun, but how do you achieve that goal? The secret, and the thing that few people seem to understand when dealing with a non-biddable dog, is that you have to become your dog’s main motivation. That is why it is so easy to train some dogs—being with their handler is their primary motivation. You can shape your Pigs Fly dog to be the same way as those biddable dogs by conditioning him to equate you with all the things in life that he loves. To do this, follow the three rules of motivation: identify the things that your dog loves, then gain control of them, and then exchange them on a regular basis for behaviors that you want. If you can do that, you will have your dog’s undivided attention and just being with you will be his idea of a great time.
In addition, you need to scrupulously ignore any behaviors that you do not want. You especially have to avoid any corrections, even very mild verbal reprimands, such as “eh, eh.” Why? Because nagging corrections of this kind are simply indications to your dog that he is free to ignore you until you notice him. He does not have to solicit your attention, because he knows you will be working to get his attention. Remember this—although you are the primate with the big brain and the opposable thumbs, you have a lot on your mind. You have to get ready for work, you have to make your children’s lunch, you have to mow your lawn, you volunteered to work the local recycling center this Saturday, and forgot that you already promised to pick up your mother at the airport. Darn! You forgot to buy milk again! Your dog, on the other hand, has a much clearer agenda—his life is about equally divided into sleeping and getting you to do what he wants. You may not see this at first, but if you take a long view you will see that your dog probably has done a really great job of training you while you were thinking about other stuff.
Let’s say you are moving about your house, busy doing things. Suddenly, you become aware that your dog has your best underwear in his mouth and he is brandishing it with great relish. You run after him, take the item away from him and scold him. Your dog is thinking something along the lines of, “Score! Now I know how to get her attention!” Your dog has trained you to run after him and give him a fun game of chase. Say instead that you are out for a walk and you ask your dog to sit. He ignores you. You ask again, he ignores you again and looks away. You say “look-look-look-watch-watch-watch” and you dog maybe turns an ear in your direction. Finally, you produce a cookie out of your pocket and put it in front of his nose and lure