{This is another guest post by my darling not-so-patient hubby, John! You can find his first post here.}
Everyone loves it when they can show off the tricks that their dogs know. “Wanna see him take a bow?? Yes! He CAN do that!” Other dog-owners will immediately realize how much effort you had exert to get your dog to take that bow. You feel so accomplished when other people smile and tell you that they can’t believe he just did that, or that they’ve never seen a dog turn a light switch off before.
However. Most of those people have no idea what it takes to get your dog to do something that others will find entertaining. They don’t realize how much money you spent on different treats, how frustrating it can be, or how much damage was done in the process (yes, Emmett can turn a light off and, no, he can’t sand, spackle, and paint the wall to cover up the gashes he made while learning to turn the light off).
In my first post, I wrote about how you have to take the good with the bad, and how the good far outweigh the bad. And I truly believe that. But sometimes, dogs can be so stubborn and willful that it nearly drives me to pull my hair out. I’ll admit it. I have buttons that are easily pushed. Very easily. Understand that my dogs are pros at this. I’ll recap some training endeavors for you.
“Okay, Emmett! Sit”
“Good boy!” [treat]
“Alright, Emmett! Down”
…
“Down!”
“Dude. Seriously. Down”
[reluctant treat]
“I shouldn’t have to tell you three times! Sit!”
“Good boy!” [treat]
“Okay, Emmett! Stay!”
[walks away, turns around, and guess who’s there?]
“No no, Emmett. I said stay. Why are you smiling at me? No I’m not giving you a treat! Back over there!”
[Emmett goes back.]
“Okay, Emmett! Let’s try again! Stay!”
[sigh…..]
“Listen Mr. Smug-pants. You have nothing to smile about because now you’re not getting this. Only good dogs get treats, and this is something you know, and you’re being stubborn because you know I had a rough day. Back over to your spot.”
And on and on it goes. After several tries he finally gets it. Once he realizes that the redness of my face means no more treats will be coming his way. But who am I kidding? They always do something so cute that you can’t deny them the freeze-dried piece of liver that you’ve had in your hand for twenty minutes.
It is hard not giving in. The cute looks on their faces can melt pretty much anyone. Hang in there John, and I look forward to your next post.
Um, so, I’m not gonna let my mom read this post cuz, well, see…I’ve trained her to give me the treat when I look at her all wide-eyed and innocent and cock my head and wag my tail and pretend I have NO idea what she’s talking about even though we’ve practiced it 10 gazillion times before. It took awhile but she’s FINALLY got the hang of it.
Wiggles & Wags,
Mayzie
One of the hardest things I had to learn when I tried to train my first dog was that they look for all different kinds of cues, not just the verbal command I’m trying to teach.
If my dog wasn’t “getting it”, it was usually because he was getting confused by other things I was doing, such as how I said the command, or what my arms were doing, or what else was happening around us.
As long as I kept aware of all of the messages I was sending, eventually he would put it all together and realize what he was supposed to be responding to.
Thanks for the great posts!
Emmett’s side of the story, according to Cady:
“Okay, John! I’m sitting—now give me a treat!”
[Sit to give the command for treat]
“Good boy!”
[wag the tail for positive reinforcement]
“Okay, John, now give me another treat!”
[still sitting to continue the command for treat]
“John, treat.”
“Dude. Seriously. Treat.”
[no tail wag until John gives me a treat]
“I shouldn’t have to tell you three times! Treat!”
[tail wag]
“Okay, John, treat!”
[John walks away]
“Why are you walking away, John?”
[follow to let him know he can’t ignore me, and then smile for encouragement]
“Okay, John! Let’s try again! Treat!”
[smile even bigger for more encouragement]
“Look, John. Don’t get grumpy because you’re not getting this. We’ll keep working on it. Now I’ll go back to my spot and we can start again.”
Jen, That is AWESOME! Thank you for that! 🙂
Luckily I’ve forgotten how painful the training part was. Though I can’t believe you taught him to turn off the light, now that’s creative!
Thanks for the great comments, everyone! And actually, Maggie did almost all of the training. As you can probably tell, I don’t always have the patience for teaching tricks. 🙂