Training the Trainer

Bella has a habit I find annoying: barking. In general, she is a quiet puppy, but when she's particularly amped up, she barks...and barks...and barks. Like two repelling magnets, moving towards her (i.e., to grab her collar or muzzle) pushes her away. Saying quiet makes her bark louder. Finger to the mouth—even with no noise—has no affect. She barks at my husband when he ties his shoes in the morning. (Somehow I am normally exempt from this display.) When we stop our mountain bikes, she barks when we start rolling again. Recently, she has started barking at a certain part of our morning (not afternoon) walk.

I am frustrated that I don't "get it." Nothing either of us has tried has curbed this. No ignoring the barking, nor putting her go through a litany of party tricks. Nothing. So I wrote into a forum to ask for help. Wow! I got a fabulous, picture-perfect response from one of the members who owns/run a local training facility . She said:

My dog has a "speak" on command. My cue? I take finger to mouth and say "shush..." and she speaks! How did I teach that? When she barked, I cued it and treated it! Talking to a dog when the dog is talking is just talking with her. Think of this. When we teach sit we do so when the dog is moving into a sit. So action = cue/word, we have a sit. Same with "Down" As dog goes down, we lure and we say "down" when they are in the action of going down. But for some reason when dogs bark, we think that if we say words "quiet!" that they will get quiet but the dog thinks "Great, we are all barking, she is on the same page as me!"

All my dogs bark, only one is a nuisance barker and we curbed it by teaching him the word "enough" (it's our word for quiet because our kids burned the quiet word while yelling it when the dog was barking, he was in heaven I'm sure thinking they were all joining him!) so I changed it to "enough." When the dog was not barking but just looking out the window I would offer him some cheese, lure him off the window and as he ate it and licked it, is said "enough, enough, enough" and I did this off and on during the day for weeks. Then he BARKS, I go to him and say "Enough" and he turned off and came to me and I rewarded. I built an off switch that worked great.

What a head slapper. Of course! Why would a dog know that "shush" means the opposite of what they are doing? We will begin today. Results to follow.

Fameless

Could it have been the mention of drooling? Or perhaps it was the limited repertoire. Heaven forbid they did not like her look! We never heard back; Bella was not chosen. She remains an anonymous dog. No Hollywood. No bright lights. It's wonderful her shattered Broadway dreams can be salved with a tennis ball.

Fame?

We have been asked if Bella could take part in a commercial. Someone saw our girl and decided she fit the mood they they wanted to convey. The person in charge of the commercial will have to decide if she's the right one, but the cameraman was in love.

We did warn him she's still a puppy. Oh, and that she drools (he liked that!), but she could come, sit, lie down and wait to eat the biscuit on her paw. Those are her list of show tunes. But you have to admit, she has such a pretty face! (...said the proud mama.)

Walking Class Review

Can you learn much in a one hour class? How about a one hour class when there is a fair amount of dog energy going on? I must say "hats off" to all instructors. You have truly clueless, well-meaning owners and lots of doggie personalities stuffed into a small room. How to teach with all that in the mix?!

I guess we'll see. If nothing else, it was a hands-on example of the videos I mentioned in the previous post. The "take-away" from this class is how to countermand the yo-yo affect where the dog goes to the end of the lead, stops, returns to collect the treat and returns to leash end. The other thing the instructor (not the same one I had before) emphasized is the importance of consistency. Don't allow the dog to pull here, but not there.

I think I'll start with Bella in the house, despite the fact we'll still be going on long walks. It's rainy today, so a good time to be indoors.

Walking Class

I signed up for this walking class on a whim and then decided I didn't need it. Two days later, I'm glad I signed up. Bella is actually stellar on a leash in the neighborhood where we walk 95% of the time. We choose many different routes through the 'hood, so it's not as if she is never exposed to new things. And as you can see from the picture, although she's out in front, the leash is at length, but not taut. However, last night my husband joined us on an evening excursion and this was unusual. As an experiment, he walked ahead. Oi! We failed miserably; Bella pulled as if she was training for the Iditarod!

Today I took her to two new places (to solidify my need for this class) and I suffered the same abysmal outcome. She doesn't run at the end of the leash, but does reach it frequently. Nor does she pullpullpull. But the end result is the same—the leash is taut. I don't get the concept of how to teach her to walk without heeling but also without pulling, though I know it can be done. I've tried stopping and Sweet Girl stops also. I've tried turning around and my favorite pup goes with me, albeit at the end of the leash. So I understand "A" (no pulling) and want "C" (loose lead), but haven't grasped "B" (how to connect the dots). Hence, the class.

I'm excited about going back to Ahimsa and I believe the woman who is teaching this one is the one who taught our first puppy class. The place is far away and the time is awful—Sunday mid-day! But it is a one day class, so I guess I can miss one gorgeous, sunny, warm, weekend day if I have the carrot of a well-trained owner & dog in front of me!