When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [66]
1. Leaving the yard—Back Up at the gate.
2. Sit and Stay at the gate.
3. Come through the gate.
4. Don’t want your leash to wrap around the fence post? Attention Walk past that.
5. Casual Walking on the trail.
5. Pop quiz—Come!
6. Back to Casual Walking.
7. Bicycle coming through! Come! Move off trail and Sit-Stay with Attention.
8. Back to Casual Walking.
9. Your shoe came untied. Down-Stay, while you tie your shoe.
10. Pedestrians approaching—Come!
11. Your dog may be friendly, but you don’t want him to pester the pedestrians with affection. Attention walk past them.
12. You don’t want your dog walking through that high grass with ticks in it so move him to your other side with a Hand Touch.
13. Eeeew, dead groundhog. Attention Walk past that one.
14. Back home—Go to Your Crate.
15. A good dog is a tired dog—be sure to reinforce him for Lying Down quietly after his walk.
Congratulations! You have done something that was probably previously impossible for you and your dog to do together. Pigs have flown! A jackpot for both of you!
Training with rewards is the way to get your dog to walk politely and love it. This previously unruly dog is now a joy to walk with.
10
ABCs of Living With a Pigs Fly Dog
Problem Behaviors
Now that you have taught your dog foundation behaviors, gotten him passionate about offering them, and practiced them everywhere, you are equipped to tackle any behavior complaint you have with your dog. You may wonder how this is possible. You just want to make your dog stop doing “bad” things and stop now! “Gee thanks,” you might be thinking, “you showed me how to teach my dog to offer all kinds of behaviors, but I don’t want behaviors and I don’t care if my dog is operant, I just want him to stop jumping on me!” Let’s see how you can use the power of your foundation behaviors to crowd out the behaviors you do not like.
Humans tend to think that Pigs Fly dogs are “bad” because they frequently indulge in activities that we don’t like, such as digging, barking, pulling, tearing apart upholstered furniture, etc. Our Pigs Fly dogs are simply doing what is natural to them. They lack the abstract mind of a philosopher necessary to have a concept of right and wrong. Get your tattoo gun out, because I want you to tattoo these two concepts on your arm:
When it comes to dogs, there are no “good” or “bad” behaviors. There are only
“behaviors” and the dog is born thinking they are all equal.
And also this:
Two behaviors cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
If your dog is doing a behavior of which you approve, he cannot be doing a
behavior of which you disapprove.
If you can grasp these two concepts, your life will go much more smoothly. Dogs have no sense of morality or shame. What they do have is a huge self-interest and they will do whatever it takes to promote their cause. If waiting politely for you to open the door and let them out pays dividends, and trying to blast past you to get out does not, they will opt for waiting politely. You don’t need to be a doggie Freudian to figure this out—all you have to do is let go of your preconceived notion that rushing past you is a “bad” behavior, and train the behavior that you like in its place.
Now that your dog is operant and will offer you his nice little portfolio of foundation behaviors, we can shape him to do anything, including behave the way you would like him to. Let’s look at how you can use what you have taught your dog so far to solve any problem behavior—all you need to know is your ABCs, a concept first introduced by trainers Marian and Bob Bailey (see Resources).
A is for Antecedent
Don’t be put off if you have no idea what antecedent means—it is not exactly a term we use every day. It’s just a term for something that comes before something else.
Dogs do not do things