Shout out to tired, rehabbing Hornblower!

[Beth in OH]

I wanted to give you a huge round of :hurray::hurray: and say thank you for coaching me through my foster malamute/collie x issues. The conditioning approach to reducing tension when I pet the other dogs is really working well. The big girl has even let me pet my golden without treats--she just keeps looking to me for petting/reassurance, and I watch her to distract "the stare" when she locks on the golden.

 

I still have my sister's golden (until Sunday), who has a much stronger personality than my dog's. While she and Lucy (the mal x) aren't going to be BFF's anytime soon, they've mostly called a truce. Lucy wants to play and engage with the other dogs, but she doesn't quite know how to do it. She

just runs alongside them :001_smile:.

 

I've learned a lot about northern breeds in this process, and made a great contact with the local rescue. I'm not sure our (collie rescue) typical families are going to be super interested in Lucy. I'm hoping we may be able to partner with them to find a placement. Nevertheless, she's a magnificent creature and smart beyond belief!

 

Anyhow--I just want to encourage you in your relentless pursuit of responsible dog ownership! You are making a difference in how people view this relationship. I've noticed it in the number of people here who are planning to become dog owners and are spending a lot of time preparing/researching. Hooray! Thank you for your incredibly generous sharing of your time in answering so many questions as our resident dog expert. I greatly appreciate it. Lucy, the rescue malamute x, does too.

[smrtmama]

Adding a second thank you! We're getting our rescue beagle on Thursday and after doing all the reading Hornblower linked me (and I really did read about every page on those sites) I feel SO much more prepared. I didn't know that much about clicker training before, but now I'm sold on it and I feel like I'll be ready to deal with the most likely issues to crop up in a rescue beagle. I can't wait to start working with our new furry family member!

[LauraGB]

:iagree: You are awesome, Hornblower!

[hornblower]

Aw, thank you. I'm glad my words helped someone.

 

[i kind of suspect a lot of people have me on ignore. Esp. ones who are tired of my relentless blabbing about the dominance [i]myths[/i] & tv entertainers; but I keep on & hopefully plant some seeds of doubt .....:D]

 

Beth - I'm so glad she's calming down. Truce is a big accomplishment. Oh & lots of dogs don't really know how to play with each other. My mal used to run beside other dogs & bite them on the butt. :lol: The dork eventually figured out that this just mostly ticked dogs off.

 

smrtmama - I feel it's only fair to warn you that clicker training is seriously addictive. Don't come crying to me later when you're hooked & teaching your dog silly tricks & wake up at night saying "well duh! I was lumping! No wonder the dog was confused!" and can't wait to get up in the morning because now you know what you need to do...... :D

 

& then you start clicker training kids & dh...... ;)

 

 

Hey - here's a funny video of dogs on the beach, just 'cause it is summer. Clicker trained of course.... LOL

 

[mo2]

I think your words of advice are great too.

[Twigs]

Hey - here's a funny video of dogs on the beach, just 'cause it is summer. Clicker trained of course.... LOL

:smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5:

 

Thanks, you made my day!

[smrtmama]

& then you start clicker training kids & dh...... ;)

 

 

 

The heck with the dog. If clicker training works with DH and the kids, I'm ON IT!:lol:

[Wyndie]

& then you start clicker training kids & dh...... ;)

 

 

I am SOLD!

 

Seriously though, even my mom appreciates your advice. :)

[hornblower]

For training people, it's called TAG

http://tagteach.com/

 

It's mostly worked in coaching for sports, though there was a story I read a while back about some fish processor who used it in training people on the assembly line to use safe practices & reduce injury.

 

Humans are so much more complicated & I think simple behaviorism does not explain us, so there are limitations to using classical or operant conditioning with us.

 

Dogs are SO much simpler & easier to train. I think in most cases, the simpler the organism, the easier to clicker train it.

 

But still - there's a good reason why Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot the Dog is in the La Leche League parenting library: behavior that's rewarded or positively reinforced (or intrinsically self-rewarding) is more likely to be repeated. That's it. Reward the good, ignore the bad & over time you'll see way more good.