06/27/2017
Excerpt from Student Lesson on Problem Solving.....
Problem solving can be so much fun, it’s like trying to outwit a four year old child. You teach your dog to stay off the furniture, but the moment you leave the house you see his beady little eyes looking out between the curtains. Errr, he is on the couch! Most problems that dog owners experience are what I call owner absent problems. What I mean by that, is the dog behaves quite well when you are home, but when you leave the picture, all hell breaks loose. They chew up your shoes, jump on the coach, put their feet on the counter, etc.
I will tell you some funny methods I came up with through the years to fix those problems that seem, well, unfixable. So don’t get mad at your dog, let’s just put on our thinking caps and see if we can outwit the four year old.
I had a gentleman call me who needed help with his toy poodle. His little, black poodle was his constant companion and the joy of his life. He only had one problem with his poodle and it all came about because the gentleman was blind. The dog listened to him and did everything he asked, with one exception. The little guy had figured out that once he was out in the backyard, he didn’t have to come when called. At first the gentleman could find him by listening for the jingling of the tags on his collar and bring him back inside. Eventually though, the smart little dog figured out if he stood stock still, the gentleman couldn’t find him and he could stay out as long as he liked. Smart cookie!
Now how to outsmart the 4 year old. Hmmm. I had to think on this one a moment, but what I came up with was a remote TV finder. You push the button and it would beep until you stopped pushing the button. So, I attached the little box to the poodle’s collar. After just a few lessons, the dog learned if he heard the beep coming from his collar, to come on in because he had been found. Problem solved.