Time for learning... (20)

I just received this photo of Eric and Chelsey's foster dog with a sweater that my mom gave him. I think this is a real funny picture. I can't tell weather or not "Squiggles" likes it, but I think he looks warmer any way. Thanks for the picture Chelsey. Please keep us informed on Squiggle's progress.

Two things I have been reading about lately that I want to write about today. Both are things that Temple Grandin talks about and I have been thinking about how they relate to Beeker and Max.
The first is that if I want to get Beeker interested in a novelty item or behavior I want to engage his SEEKING behavior. Thanks makes sense to me. But if he is resistant, anxious about it , then his FEAR behavior kicks in and he may not advance toward or willingly engage in what I want him to do. Grandin suggests that most animals will willingly engage in and approach novel situations if allowed to approach it without pressure. She gives many examples from her work in the stock yards but suffice to say that if I want Beeks to walk through a plastic training tunnel, I should leave the tunnel where he can approach it on his own. Grandin says that animals alternate between FEAR and SEEKING. She calls this Curiously Afraid. A little bit curious a little but afraid. I have seen Beeks do this when he first notices something, like a new person or a sculpture. He kind of crouches but advances too. Then he backs up, then approaches it. Grandin says they live by the motto,"nothing ventured, nothing gained". I like that, I realize that introduction to many new things is good but also it needs to be voluntary exploration to advance toward it.
The other thing I have been thinking about is a weird behavior that Beeks has been displaying lately. A miscommunication of sorts. When I want to allow him to get on the bed I say to him,"Beeks come", or "Beeks bed up" or some version of that. He stalls. He looks at me and acts like he is going to jump up but then doesn't. I can change my voice(get more excited/encouraging)but he doesn't come. He wants to come up, I know because he will sometimes come and put his head on the bed near me, looking at me. He's just apprehensive. I end up saying it a bunch of times,different ways until he jumps up. I have tried to use my hand signal for "up" too, without success. Now here's the interesting part; if I stand by him, I can use the hand signal for up and he jumps up on the first signal, without a voice command. No problem. Or I can only use my voice and he jumps up too on the first command. I've thought of two explanations for this, and I know there are probably many I haven't thought about. The first is that dogs view things differently from different angles. If you walk your dog in a straight line, what they see going one way will look different going the other way. If this is true then Beeks hasn't associated me giving commands in front view with commands given on the side view. The other explanation is that he is familiar with me giving him the verbal command for "up" means "car up" but not "bed up" and I am confusing him with multiple commands trying to get him up on the bed. Brad believes this explanation. He says I am confusing Beeks because I keep changing how I try to get him on the bed and I should invite him up once and if he doesn't come then he's out, until next time. I don't know. I do agree that I am not communicating with him at this point and am probably confusing him.

This just in... I was reading in a Dog book I just picked up about retraining digs that have bad habits. The book is Good Owners Great Dogs Brian Kilcommons. Its an old book (1992). But his suggestion is that if a dog is misbehaving then we should ground them. He has suggestions for how to do this that make a lot of sense and are easily do-able. I will use the example of barking at sounds (we have this problem). First we should praise them for doing their job(alerting us to the situation) then give them something else to do. Like dog push ups. Dog push ups are sit,down,sit,down, etc commands. This will redirect and also tire them out so they want to just be left alone. He says 50 push ups a day (not all at the same time)will physically and mentally work dogs and redirect their sense of obedience. I want to tell you that I have done this today after I read this and Max willingly adapted to it like a charm. He is happy that I am praising him for doing his job and then followed when I gave him the push up commands. I did about 6 up/down's and then told him to stay. He did it and didn't bark any more. Here's the funny part. Beeks sided up with Max and joined in the push ups. I didn't pay Beeks any attention but he just joined in. It was great! We'll have 50 done by bed time.