I have a cue which means ‘stop that and come here now!’ and it’s the word ‘enough’, shouted. I trained this one. I’ve just realised I have another. I was perusing the forum and the dogs were hoolying loudly. Without thinking I shouted ‘oi oi oi’ and they both came running I have a treat box by me so I treated them and smiled at our ‘new’ cue. A photo of them when better behaved -
My two have just been charging around loudly and banged into my shins - I cried out ‘oww’ very loudly as it hurt. They stopped instantly - perhaps that’s a new cue for my usual ‘enough’. I didn’t treat them though .
I have "Merlin, calm the f**k down", not usually very effective I'm afraid... That Keir is the most beautiful dog... I am normally a Labrador girl through and through, but I'd steal him in a heartbeat! He looks particularly fetching next to your gorgeous Tatze...
I inadvertently trained 'oi' to mean 'sit at heel' Ella has an automatic sit but occasionally I'd stop and she didn't sit. Usually I roll my eyes and say 'oi' . And... She sits
I realised recently that I have two inadvertently cued commands. If I say ‘ahem’ my two immediately sit incredibly fast despite ignoring previously! Also discovered that if I cough my keen enthusiastic dog will immediately reverse into the correct heel position when I’m loose lead walking. Not sure how I trained either of those...
My 'interrupter' cue is my recall or my stop or my dogs' names. If you are 'shouting' Oi! or shouting 'Enough!' you are using punishment. Yes, yes, yes. It may be mild. It may be doing no great harm. But it is what it is.....
In whose eyes - yours or your dog’s? The dog hears “enough!” and comes running for a treat. You know you’re stopping him from fun, but he thinks, yay, treats! Recalling while having fun - him: must stop play, I’m being punished. You: come here, I’ve got a treat, not punishment. Being devil’s advocate, I know. But I do think it depends from whose perspective you’re viewing this. All the cues are letting your dog know what you want. What exactly is the punishment in this context? Stopping the activity? But you’re giving a treat for the expected next behavior. It’s the same whether you use recall or oi. I loved that Jaffa Ted Talk (someone posted it here a little while ago) where the speaker describes how a taxi driver would have no idea where you wanted to go if you said: don’t take me to x. Don’t take me to y (like saying no to your dog the whole time). But say: take me to z - now it’s clear what you want (recall as an interrupter rather than saying no).
It does depend very much on how your interrupter has been conditioned and how much you have control over your own voice/emotions. There is technically no difference between "enough!" and my "scatter!", if you have trained them the same - ie paired the word "enough" with the action of throwing food on the floor. However, I do think it's "dangerous" to use an interrupter word that is usually said in frustration because we're human and the chances are we'll say it with frustration, which the dog will pick up on and that's when it becomes a punisher, if your dog is sensitive to that. It's very unlikely I would say "scatter!" in a cross way, because I am conditioned to say it in an upbeat way. I think it would be more of an effort for me to say "enough!" or "oi!" in a consistently happy way if I was feeling frustrated.
I'll admit, I have used "enough" in the past and thought I was able to condition it properly, but turns out I'm not that controlled when I'm annoyed. That's why I changed to "scatter"
I’m neither annoyed nor frustrated when I use ‘oi’ or ‘enough’. I just can’t hear myself think for dog noise. Either that or I don’t want them to play due to having just eaten etc. I’ve never been annoyed or cross with my dogs - I save that for the humans! All food is given from our hands or in dishes as Guide dogs are trained to ignore food on the ground, so throwing food down is absolutely not allowed. The reason for this is, of course, that their owner can’t see what’s there. I was with my blind friend and her Guide Dog, Fable, yesterday at the garden centre. She was choosing a new toy for Fable. There were pig’s ears and other such treats in baskets at the bottom of the shelves. Fable sniffed them but didn’t lick or touch them. It was a wonder to behold. Thankfully the food refusal is taught at Big School, I wouldn’t know where to start. Except that we do start by not putting food on the ground and being sure the bus floor etc is clear of food before we go to the seat - so the dog, when it gets to school, hasn’t got the idea that food may be on the ground. .
Hehe, you'd have had fun with a pup on my morning walk, then - the farmer gets his sheep off the mountain with stale bread. French loaf crumbs absolutely the whole length of the path. Luckily, I don't have to worry about it. I know they're safe, so I just use them as an opportunity to use Premack for my attention noise. The interrupter obviously doesn't have to be conditioned with food thrown on the floor; it's just a very convenient interrupter, gives me more time to "collect" the dogs if that's necessary (I've used it for getting Luna on lead when she started playing keep-away - now she has associated the lead coming out with a scatter, so she comes running), and lowers their arousal, too. But you could equally feed from the hand. I know you know this, but for anyone else reading... Most of us are human ( ) and dogs playing loudly enough to make us want to stop them will raise the blood pressure somewhat. It's normally right when I've just started a business call... So I still think that for most people, using a neutral word or noise is a really good idea.
I'd be really curious as how they teach this in Big School. I taught it by lots of games of "take it/don't touch" where the reward was always better than whatever food was on the ground. Also neither Brogan or Duncan were allowed to take food from the ground unless it was in their proper bowls. All treats were given by hand directly to their mouths. Even if they dropped it one the ground, I'd pick it up myself and then offer again from my hand. Of course, these weren't Labradors - I'd think it would be more difficult with a very food-driven dog!
Oh dear - I've used 'oi,oi,oi' to interrupt behaviour too, and a few other choice words which I won't type here, AND in a shouty voice Very far from an ideal owner or trainer I am.
