#training things

[theshiredog]

It’s taken me this long (I got him at Thanksgiving) to gain Frodo’s trust enough to do some training. He’s a very sensitive guy, and even though I never put pressure on my dogs, or make them do anything they don’t want to (unless it is dangerous), I try my best to make working with me fun for the dog. Frodo never makes it very far in training despite having ample reinforcement for any steps he makes. If I ask him to problem solve just a little bit, he begins to shut down. He has his one behavior he will do happily all day- which is sit. But, yesterday, I was able to get him to lay down through luring- something he never understood (and would just get up and leave the training session). I’m so proud! ;-; Slowly he’s trusting me enough to engage in training, I hope this continues but I need to be super patient and not push it. Liam is SO confident and will do anything I ask him, so Frodo’s very different than what I am used to. 

Anyone else deal with gentle souls in training? Any particular confidence building exercises you recommend? Thanks in advance!

[theshiredog]

I think that most of the emotion needs to be taken out of service dog training. It should be a very practical yes/no situation- if a dog doesn’t meet one aspect, they should be washed. All too often people delay washing a dog waaaay too long. Some folks who owner-train service dogs are so emotionally attached and try to push a dog into a job just because it is their dog and their bond is the best. If a dog is unsafe in public, don’t continue to try to train it for SD work. Same goes for dogs who are stressed in certain situations- that becomes a huge welfare concern for the dog. It’s not fair to the dog, while it may not necessarily be “liability” level stress (like provoking into aggression), but it is still a pretty sucky life for the dog if they go in public and are severely stressed. It doesn’t matter how much the owner is attached to the dog. VERY FEW dogs should actually be service dogs, and can handle that type of work in general. I would never keep a dog in a working state if I knew they were stressed. While, I don’t have an SD, but Liam is a therapy dog. If I discovered one day he was stressed out by going and visiting children at the ASD school, I would not make him go anymore. I work with many other therapy dogs (in fact, my thesis for my Master’s has to do with stress in therapy dogs), all of the dogs are stressed and it’s super heartbreaking to see. No matter your bond with your dog, your emotion, and love towards your dog, putting your dog in an uncomfortable position for them sucks and is unethical. 

[theshiredog]

Liam doing his very best at nosework class last night! He was doing flawlessly on the first four hides, but falsed on the last run of the night, but quickly alerted to the right box afterwards. He's still the top dog in the class. Next week we will be having "graduation" where we have two hides and to graduate we have to do both within a timeframe in order to pass. We also have a chance to win a small prize for the best dog of the night. We will be doing a rally class next! But I also want to keep doing nosework. :)

[theshiredog]

Just checking in! I’ve been busy...But, Frodo has settled in great! Liam loves his new bro. :-)  It feels a little crazy how good he fits into our life. I’m sure it’s just the honeymoon effect, but I hope it continues to be this way! 

For a while, I was going back and forth between an adult or another puppy, but I’m so glad I decided on an adult! <3

I’ll try to get some photos of the two to upload soon!

[theshiredog]

Got my submission in for the behavior analysis conference...I’ll be doing 3 presentations in one conference. I’ve only ever done one per conference before. I’ll present in a symposium regarding human-animal interactions, I’ll present a poster on toy preference assessments for dogs. And I am one of three researchers leading a workshop about shelter dog training/adoptability. 

Will be fun, but also a lot for one conference!! Will be no chill!!

[theshiredog]

Alright! So Liam nosework class update: He did a birch scent blind search with ten boxes. His recorded time was 9.81 seconds. He, again, did better than the two German shepherds in the class! So proud of my sighthound boy!

[theshiredog]

So, got some really fantastic news. It’s not official yet, but looks likely. 

At nosework class last night, the dog trainer asked me if I’d be interested in doing contractual dog training at her facility. She was thinking about adding someone so that she didn’t have to train every day. I would be training her Puppy class curriculum (which is very similar to what I would do!). I would use her clients and my own. I would get paid, and just pay her a percentage! My old training place (I have an LLC, but no location), is quite small, so I’m limited to about 6 dogs (pushing it). But, in her facility, it is big enough to have 10 dogs in a class. Her classes also fill up a month in advance, so I wouldn’t have to worry about generating business which is very good. 

I’m so happy!!