03/01/2019
Hello folks if anyone is still out there. I hope you all have a happy new year. Now to training. I am back to full time training after some very difficult years. So let's start with a good example on how we inadvertently train our dogs. We must always be aware that although we sometimes think our dogs are having a timeout they are in fact still very aware of what we are saying and doing. For example the photo on the left shows my dog Zeus resting near the end of our morning walk. The photo on right shows Zeus reacting to my command of "O. K mate lets go"and as you can see that is not the reaction I want for the command. The reason for this is that the corner of rest is very busy, especially with tourists who when they see Zeus in the posture think it is a green light to pat, tummy scratch and take photos of Zeus.I haven't discouraged this because he unlike me loves the attention. So because he received what he perceived positive reinforcement for lying on his back he has associated the command "O. K. mate lets go " with what he understands as positive reinforcement. This as I said is a very good example of inadvertently training our pooches.