Head of the class
Our first class of obedience for pet therapy was this evening. It runs an hour a week for the next 6 (now 5) weeks. There are certainly a lot of labs and lab mixes. There were three black labs and a yellow lab and one dog that I think might be part chocolate. The only other small dog was a cute little blue merle corgi, I didn't get a good look, but I think she was a Pembroke.
Tonight was mostly administrative/introductory. We did do a little work with the dogs at the very end, but it was all review (for us) so the instructor could assess our abilities. All owner bias aside, I'm pretty sure that Bleys is one of the best in the class. Some of the other people were asking their dogs to do things rather than commanding and not getting much as a result. One other lady actually told me she hasn't actually taken any other obedience because she dog 'has always been so easy to train.' Well, good luck with that. Since I was taking Bleys through the exercises I couldn't watch everyone, but most people seemed to be struggling with things that we use as routine training, though I saw at least one other CGC tag in the group. In addition none of the other owners seemed like more than level 1 people, well except maybe for one guy who was showing some promise. Every one else, not so much.
The instructor was pretty good although I disagree with some of the things she teaches. She seems pretty okay with people using other techniques though. She encourages people to wear treat pouches so that dogs associate them with training, which makes sense if you are going to give your dog a treat every time they do something for the rest of their lives. However, I'm not into that, I want my dog to sit even if I don't have my treat pouch, or even a treat on me. So I use a bridge (the same a clicker or the whistle that dolphin/killer whale trainers use. It allows me to immediately communicate what behavior was correct and then walk to where a treat is if he deserves one, but I don't give him a treat every time he does something for me. It's like the slot machines. People (and dogs) will actually engage in a behavior (putting in a coin and pulling the arm) MORE often if they don't win all the time or lose all the time. That uncertainty increases the behavior, just ask the casinos in Vegas.
I didn't discuss this with the instructor as I'm sure that it would be taken as criticism. But it makes me all the more grateful for the training and guidance I received from Mary Beth. As time goes on I understand more and more how incredible she was and I miss her. She was my kind of people. That in turn makes me miss Shannon, and wonder what sort of craziness she is perpetrating with her new partners in crime. I wonder how they are settling into their home with introducing the twin to their horde of pets. I hope Ronda is doing well and getting back to normal. That in turn takes me over to Katie, who is apparently now into maternity clothes. I hope that she posts some pictures as she moves along, so I can sneak a long distance peek.
Well, I'm getting kinda tired and since Roland isn't home I don't have much reason to stay up as late as when he is home, so gute Nacht.
Tonight was mostly administrative/introductory. We did do a little work with the dogs at the very end, but it was all review (for us) so the instructor could assess our abilities. All owner bias aside, I'm pretty sure that Bleys is one of the best in the class. Some of the other people were asking their dogs to do things rather than commanding and not getting much as a result. One other lady actually told me she hasn't actually taken any other obedience because she dog 'has always been so easy to train.' Well, good luck with that. Since I was taking Bleys through the exercises I couldn't watch everyone, but most people seemed to be struggling with things that we use as routine training, though I saw at least one other CGC tag in the group. In addition none of the other owners seemed like more than level 1 people, well except maybe for one guy who was showing some promise. Every one else, not so much.
The instructor was pretty good although I disagree with some of the things she teaches. She seems pretty okay with people using other techniques though. She encourages people to wear treat pouches so that dogs associate them with training, which makes sense if you are going to give your dog a treat every time they do something for the rest of their lives. However, I'm not into that, I want my dog to sit even if I don't have my treat pouch, or even a treat on me. So I use a bridge (the same a clicker or the whistle that dolphin/killer whale trainers use. It allows me to immediately communicate what behavior was correct and then walk to where a treat is if he deserves one, but I don't give him a treat every time he does something for me. It's like the slot machines. People (and dogs) will actually engage in a behavior (putting in a coin and pulling the arm) MORE often if they don't win all the time or lose all the time. That uncertainty increases the behavior, just ask the casinos in Vegas.
I didn't discuss this with the instructor as I'm sure that it would be taken as criticism. But it makes me all the more grateful for the training and guidance I received from Mary Beth. As time goes on I understand more and more how incredible she was and I miss her. She was my kind of people. That in turn makes me miss Shannon, and wonder what sort of craziness she is perpetrating with her new partners in crime. I wonder how they are settling into their home with introducing the twin to their horde of pets. I hope Ronda is doing well and getting back to normal. That in turn takes me over to Katie, who is apparently now into maternity clothes. I hope that she posts some pictures as she moves along, so I can sneak a long distance peek.
Well, I'm getting kinda tired and since Roland isn't home I don't have much reason to stay up as late as when he is home, so gute Nacht.
Labels: Bleys, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Tricolor
posted by Susan at 10:16 PM
2 Comments:
Alright, so I´m commenting a bit late here.
Dog instructor = cool. Would love to be one, but I´d have to deal with people far too much. And I´m likely to say things like " you´re a stupid fucking idiot so stop doing that, like I´ve already told you a thousand times!" which is unlikely to help in any form of therapy (except maybe aggression therapy - if you suffer from a LACK thereof).
Leon Dog Wonder has started responding again to DrJ´s Polite Doggy Interaction 101 course and actually met a dog yesterday without trying to remove it´s jugular. It´s a nice change. Hopefully the next 6 weeks of dog + german + VW bus won´t overwhelm him and we can keep it up.
Too true! Almost every dog obedience class I assisted with had half a classful of people who just didn't get it. Although I have to say the hardest part about dog training in my household is getting both Dave and I on the same page. An old obedience adage:
It takes you hundreds of hours to train your dog and someone else only 30 seconds to undo all of it.
Don't get me wrong Dave is awesome and loves Bleys a bajillion, but it's hard to get him to think about it enough to keep up the level of obedience I'm looking for. Which is admittedly pretty high.
I'm glad your Doggy Interaction program is going well. That's a hard one to deal with, keep up the good work Leon!
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