K9 Musings

I was chatting with someone the other day and mentioned what I’d been doing with Kenzi. Mostly petting/massage time and working on some tricks that can be done while she’s stationary. And be generous with food rewards for the tricks.

“You’d better be careful – she may end up rather spoiled with all that” they said with a note of seriousness.

Now, if it was in a joking tone, I would have chuckled. I frequently joke about my spoiled creatures.

But I got the drift that they were serious. And it left me a bit speechless.

You can’t spoil a dog through rewarding them as they work. Your lack of expertise in training and rewarding can lead to confusion, lack of learning or a dog who is just looking for treats. However, done correctly, you can train just about anything through a treat based reward system. They may not always be the quickest or best choice depending on the situation. But with handler skill, treats work wonderfully overall.

Now lets go a bit further.

Three weeks ago (after months of injury issues that kept her restricted) I took my dog to a strange place, left her for a full day with strange people where a bunch of weird stuff and, at best, uncomfortable stuff happened.  When I showed back up the next day she was groggy, had a cast up past her elbow and was wearing a cone.

I brought her home and she’s spent the past 3 weeks in a crate or on a leash next to me. She’s had all of her freedom taken away. And it’s going to be that way for a while yet.

Life kinda sucks for Border Collie with an independent streak who would prefer to be bossing the puppy, patrolling the property, catching frisbees and going to trainings.

Despite all of that (and with the help of some meds) she’s being a model patient.

She easily goes to her crate – even though it means that she can’t sleep on the bed right now. She leaves her bandaging alone. She stands and waits to be picked up to go up and down stairs. She gobbles her pills down with gusto. She’s happy for any attention.

So I’m going to purposely spend at least 20-30 minutes a day giving her what she likes within the confines of, well, not doing much at all. I’ll pet her, brush her, give her a massage. I’ll turn some of her (limited because she’s on restricted activity and I don’t want her to gain weight) meals into training treats while I work her brain with a trick like “hold”.  I’ll see her wag her tail and and watch her happy face when she gets attention and get to do something instead of just listening to the other two run around and be dogs.

When we’re finally through all this I will have a happy, receptive dog. A dog who will happily hold just about anything in her mouth because it’s been highly rewarded for doing so. A dog who still loves to work with me and takes anything life throws at her like a trooper.

And quite frankly, if she was a bit spoiled after all that, who cares? If a dog can adapt to all of that, don’t you think they deserve something for their trouble?

Communication. It’s important. REALLY important.

But how much time do we spend building a foundation of solid communication with our dogs? How do we work to perfect our abilities to be precise, consistent and have good timing? How much time do we spend analyzing behavior and learning how to read – and listen to – what our dog is saying? If we want to go far with training, our foundations of communication must be solid.

We tend to want to jump into our chosen pursuit with a new dog. It’s natural – we’re excited to start unlocking their potential and get them started on their journey to our eventual goal.

But if we don’t take time to build a framework of good communication with our new dog, we won’t be starting on a solid foundation. While we may have some good early success, we won’t have nearly the amount of tools to work with when we get a few months down the road and hit a few of the inevitable bumps. If we understand good communication, we’re going to see the bumps earlier and may be able to avoid them somewhat. Because we’re reading our dog and listening to what they’re telling us. Or, on that day at training where everything goes wrong, we’ll be able to step back, come up with a solution AND communicate it to our dog.

We’ll understand that the responsibility falls on us to break things down, to tweak our approach. We’ll understand how to work on a level where our dog can understand and learn. And we’ll have a good “language skills” in place to do so.

If you look at any well trained dog and successful trainer, they’ve got their timing mastered. In my opinion, on a basic training level, it’s the understanding and best use of timing more than the method that yields favorable results in training.

While I personally use and promote the benefits of reward based training, if you don’t have and use the foundations of communication, those rewards are often ineffective. On the other hand, while I don’t chose to use correction based training, there is no doubt that some people have had some good success with it due to their understanding and use of timing in their training. Because dogs learn through clear and consistent communication.

So work hard and focus first on building that foundation for everything.

In my rabbit trail though process tonight, I was reminded of my introduction to this breed I have come to love.

It was at the Firestone farm in Greenfield Village. I was probably 7 or 8 and there for the day with my family. Walking through the farmhouse, there was a little black and white dog curled up under a table. My brothers and I looked, but otherwise ignored as that’s what we’d been taught to do with dogs we didn’t know.  We asked her owner a few questions and then watched their wool spinning demonstration.

A few other kids entered the room, made a beeline of the dog and were promptly told by the owner to leave her alone as she was a working dog.

A few minutes later, they got up to take the dog to a quiet area of the barn and invited my family to come along (it pays to have good dog manners!). We watched the little dog in action working sheep and I was enthralled.  And then we went and petted lambs.

Nearly a few decades later?  I’ve owned the sheep, raised the lambs, processed wool every step of the way from shearing to finished garment.

Then there’s the dogs. They’ve been my right hand partners and companions for over 15 years now. From barn checks at 2 AM, to collecting and holding the sheep while I wormed and vaccinated, to putting on demos for school groups, to keeping me company through the long boring hours of college homework, to searching for missing people and being ambassadors for working dogs. They’re the best.

In the world of dog training, comparison can either be a helpful motivation tool or an albatross around your neck.

It can cause us to become better or it can lead to excuses.

It can give us a bar to aim for or it can give us a target to tear down.

It can make us a better trainer or overwhelm us.

So how do we use it to our advantage? Here are some do’s and don’ts that I try to follow –

Do find a trainer that you can respect and learn from. Watch and emulate what you respect and keep track of your progress.

Don’t assume that they are successful due to their breed of choice or their current dogs. Good trainers can make a mediocre dog great and have experienced a multitude their own disappointments, frustrations and setbacks which helped make them the trainer that they are today. Remember that the master has failed more times than others have even tried.

Do understand that each dog is different. While there are many areas that you can use as a general guideline, your dog isn’t going to check all the boxes at the same time as a friend’s dog

Don’t make excuses for your dog based on the differences. Your dog is who they are. Become the best version of that. You have brought that dog into your life and have chosen to work with them. Recognize the differences and figure out how to work with them on their level.

Do celebrate successes – when your dog is above average, enjoy it! It’s an amazing experience and should be recognized as such.

Don’t think less or different of those who aren’t in the same current position as you are. Some day you might have the reactive dog, the one who is sidelined due injury, or the one who frustrates you to tears. Or you may have the “easy” dog while they have the “hard” one.

Do let it push you to become better.

Don’t let it steal the joy of the journey.

Do let it show you what is possible.

Don’t let it cause you to place unrealistic expectations on yourself or your dog.

Do compare your former dog training self with the one you have become today.

Don’t expect your current dog to be a carbon copy of the ones that you’ve had in the past.

In summary, if you are a motivated, challenged and better version of yourself through comparison, you’re using it correctly! If you are becoming discouraged, complacent, or conceited – STOP!!

Comparison is a tool in your dog training toolbox. You don’t have to use it but, if you do, learn to use it wisely in your journey to developing the best partnership possible with your dog and version of yourself.

Just how does one go about attempting to change those “worst assumptions” that I wrote about previously? By becoming the best.

Because people often assume the worst because they’ve seen some pretty poor examples.

Best is relative of course. And not everyone has aspirations to become the best. That is perfectly fine. It’s great to get out there and have fun with your dog and dabble in your activities together. And, IMO, enjoying your activity together is about the highest goal you can have as a dog person.

But in order to challenge the assumptions that the “other side” makes about you, you need to do more. You need to be able to hold your own with solid competitors, you need to be excellent at your pursuits. You need to have an excellent relationship with your dog. In short, you need to have something about what you do with your dog and your performance together that makes others say “I want to be like that!”

Mediocre won’t cut it when you’re trying to change perspectives.

You need to study the masters – both that you agree with and that you don’t.

You need to pursue excellence.

You need to have some aspect of your training or performance that turns heads, that makes others stop and take note. Something about you need to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

You need to have a thorough understanding of learning theory, drives, and behavior and how they intersect and how to work with them.

You need to understand the tools that other people use and why.

You need to be able to have an intelligent conversation about all of the above and then let your success show others why you train the way you do.

You need to be kind. To yourself, to your dog, to others in the dog world.

If you do all that, there will still be naysayers. That’s okay, disagreement is part of life. But you will be confident in what you do, in the choices you make, in working with the dog in front of you. And your confidence, knowledge and success will influence others. As well as that dog in front of you.

Dog people like to do this.

This past week I heard that clicker training was confusing to dogs and not providing clear information. Which meant that is was borderline abusive. Hmm. Okay.

I’ve heard the idea floated that in order to have a reliable dog, you need to use some sort of a correction device in training. That dogs won’t chose to do the “right” thing unless they know that they have to, unless the boundary has been made clear.

I read a blog post that pointed to a young dog’s less than stellar behavior in public being attributed to the use of treats in training.

In short, what I’ve been hearing is if we see results that we don’t think are ideal, we usually spring right to blaming the method rather than evaluating if the trainer in question really knows what the heck they’re doing.

And if we see a dog who is behaving as we thing they should, then we kind of assume that the trainer must be doing something right – AKA, training in a similar way that we would.

How often do we stop and consider that maybe it’s the operator? Maybe people who can’t produce a reliably trained dog with clicker training have poor timing skills?

Maybe those dogs who won’t recall were never properly proofed?

Maybe that person using cookies was relying on the cookies to do the work rather than just using the strategically as rewards and actively building a multi dimensional relationship with their dog? (hint – if you let the cookies do all the work, when you take those cookies away then the motivation is gone)

Maybe that young dog had a poor genetic temperament and was being pushed in over his head?  Maybe it’s people had no clue how to handle it?

There are a lot of reasons reward based training fails. And most are handler related.

What I do know is that I was able to train a dog in search work using reward/clicker based training and only the occasional verbal correction. And while he isn’t *perfect* and still has his “dog” moments, he is pretty darn good, works great and listens and responds quite well. If I take him out in public, most people would like to have him as a poster dog for their method of training.

I’m pretty sure by this point I’ve got all the reward based trainers nodding in unison and saying “yes” (no pun intended 😉 ).

But I see some of the same assuming the worst from that side, too. While I don’t agree with doing the majority of training with an e-collar, I have seen some dogs who have been trained with them who are happy, well rounded dogs.  I have seen others who were really helped by the fact that the ecollar allowed them some freedom to run around free and burn off steam while still being “attached” to their owner.

The bottom line is, if you’re timing sucks, or you have poor training skills, then your dog is going to be confused. If you let the tool do the work, then it’s going to fail. Don’t assume that the method is inherently faulty when the operator has never really learned how to do it.

P.S. While I’m not exactly in the anti-ecollar/prong collar camp, I will say that if people are’t going to take time and learn the importance of how timing relates to training, I’d MUCH rather see them confusing their dog with cookies and a clicker. And I absolutely love how my dogs light up at training time and beg to first in line to work with me as I dole out those cookies and clearly let them know what I want.

I’ve thought about writing this blog post for two years now. But when it came right down to it, I couldn’t. The time wasn’t right yet, the emotions still too raw. This year, I think I can finally do it.

Looking back and my Facebook memories for this day I am reminded of two distinct things that happened three years ago. In 2014, March 28th was the day I found out that the reason why Kipp was ill and rapidly declining. And it was the day Kolt was born.

It was devastating. My working partner, my steady buddy had a particularly nasty form of cancer with few options for treatment. He went from happily working one week deathly ill the next. Meds would fight the cancer, perk him up and give us a few more really good weeks together. But it was a gut punch with precious little I could do. We did all of his favorite things the next several weeks. He ate good food, he played frisbee and tug. He was bound and determined to still work sheep even when his blood work said he should hardly be standing. He became more and more anemic, but he just kept fighting until his body wouldn’t go anymore. He was the epitome of heart and try.

I found out about Kolt a week and a half before I lost Kipp. I hadn’t planned on a pup that soon. I thought that I’d be waiting at least six to twelve months for one that fit my needs for a search dog. But there he was. The leftover pup that fit my list to a T was being offered to me. In one way it seemed providential in a way. Like God looked down, saw the hurt and offered me a hug in the form of a puppy.

I mentally hemmed and hawed. It was an odd, weird place to be thinking about a puppy when the main reason I was doing so was because my dog was dying. The dog who was supposed to be with me for four or five years yet. I didn’t *want* to replace him. Yet I needed something to fill the hole that was happening.

After thinking about it for a week, I said yes. Because I knew what was coming. I knew that the emotional roller coaster was almost over and that *I* needed something happy again. I needed a purpose for the summer. I needed to fight my way out of the looming depression. I took the hug.

I picked up Kolt five days after I lost Kipp. Happy, full of life, wanting a person. The day after I picked him up I sat on my bed and bawled into his fur. Because life still hurt. And then we went and did puppy stuff. Because puppies don’t let you sit still for too long!

It was the worst of times. It was the best of times. Sorrow and happiness etched in the memories of one day.

So here’s to the dogs of the past who you still miss like crazy and that are still larger than life in your heart. And here’s to the dogs of the present who bring you joy today and broaden your horizons.

And finally, here’s to taking those hugs that come along when you need them most.