Let Them Think

I just read a great article by Victoria Stilwell on letting your dog think itself through a situation. Because I've been spending more time on training recently, this post was beautifully timed.

I am working with Bella to loose leash walk on a buckle collar. I want her to decide for herself that walking next to me is preferable.Today, with clicker in hand, we set out. I can't say one way or the other whether I think she "got it," but I can say I did see her "think" and choose a more appropriate spot (by my leg) for which I clicked and treated. At this point, my chow-hound is lobbying for food, so clicking and treating was only when she picked the proper position, not for any signals from me. A video I watched recently also shows some training techniques for using the clicker while training your dog to choose this position. I have a harness that I may try on her, but haven't dug it out as of yet.

Another blog post I read compares gaming (development of computer games) principles to dog training. There were several comments in there that I felt apropos. One of the best was:

Complex games give us a way to measure our progress.  When we play a game we want to feel like we’re getting somewhere. That we’re accomplishing something. And a good game gives us a way (or better yet, several ways) to measure that. This innate need to feel that one is making progress is one of the reasons why it’s important to break a training exercise down into discrete steps and give your dog meaningful input at each one of those steps rather than just at the end of a task.

The author makes several other really great points. (Read it over and see what you think.) Yesterday in my Noseworks class the instructor is teaching us (the owners) to allow the dog to do its job—sniff out the treat—and to not confuse things by getting between the dog and the smell. He said we need to be careful when we're working on Noseworks at home, to break increased complexities of the "find" into small, successful-for-the-dog steps. In other words, avoid the "let's see if she can figure this one out" syndrome. For example, he said put a loose kibble 6 feet down the wall. The next time, put it 12 feet, then 18 feet. Build the "find" in small increments so the dog is always successful and learns how to structure the hunt.