I read this short book yesterday. I bought it in place of Stop!" How to control predatory chasing in dogs by David Ryan CCAB, simply because it was available in electronic format. I have to say, I do get very frustrated with dog training/behaviour books because they are generally far too verbose. For me, this just doesn't make the process of learning how to sort unwanted behaviours clear at all. This one is no exception; despite being very short, it is immensely repetitive and, when she does try to explain the training of a certain skill, such as the stay, lacking in detail. I would always prefer a list of steps to follow, like a recipe, rather than (or in addition to) paragraphs of waffle, as I believe it to be a lot clearer that way. One of the other really frustrating things I found about this book is she assumes you have a place you can go to where there will be plenty of obliging squirrels, deer or rabbits to train around. That is simply not the case for many people, myself included, and it doesn't give any solutions for those of us without that opportunity. That is not to say there is nothing of interest in the book. She believes, as do I, that a walk with your dog should mean that you are always aware where they are and what they are doing; that you should be interacting the whole time, rather than wandering along in a dream world and not paying attention. By watching your dog, you can see the changes in their body language that mean they are on the hunt and potentially about to bolt. She points out that often, owners will only talk to their dogs on walks when they are telling them not to do something, or giving them "commands". This only ensures, over time, that the dog learns to stay away, whereas if we reward the dog for interacting with us, we will increase the desire of the dog to stay near us and to increase our bond. It's not rocket science, but many people would do well to keep this in mind. She has some ideas about games that should be restricted that don't really make sense to me. Whipit is one of those; she doesn't believe it to be an appropriate game for a dog with high prey drive. I think she is rather missing the point of the game, which to me is far more about teaching the dog to control its impulses when excited, rather than just building the excitement for the chase. The author is a great advocate of positive methods when training, which is fabulous. This sentence, above all others, resounded with me, and it is something that I shall be repeating in future: So true! She includes a chapter at the end which outlines aversive methods used to deal with the issues covered in the book. I think she does a generally good job at explaining the pitfalls of these methods. Some of them horrified me - a trainer advising shooting their dog with an air rifle from a distance that wouldn't cause it serious injury! What on earth?! In summary, I can't say that I would recommend this book, because it didn't really bring anything new to me. A book like Total Recall is far more comprehensive for dealing with the recall, which she only really touches upon, and the rest of her "method" is rather fluffy, without guidance or suggested goals.
Very interesting. I think if whipit is used just as a game - the dog chasing something - it's not great. I do see a lot of people using it this way, rather than training with it. Isn't all dog behaviour instinctive and genetically determined through a long evolutionary process?
I've just found that "Stop!" is available for iBooks through iTunes, so I've downloaded it and will read and compare. I think you're right, Julie, about how the whipit game is used. She mentioned balls, too, and you all too often see someone that uses the ball as the only way of entertaining their dog on a walk, without any thought that it may be just increasing their enthusiasm for chasing. She also believes that treats should never be thrown. I think that is taking it a bit far, and if balls and other chase toys are used appropriately, with the inclusion of impulse control, then there is nothing wrong with using them on occasion, as long as they're not just a crutch. I really think she missed a trick in not talking about impulse control at all in any detail and that, by working on that through any of these and other methods, you can help your dog to maintain control when a rabbit runs past. I hope Heh, I suppose you're right, although we try to nurture the parts we want and suppress (or channel) the parts we don't. She might have been more accurate to say, "I am completely convinced that we have no right to punish an animal " and leave it at that, but it sounds better her way - to me, at least. And there I was complaining about her being too verbose. I guess I'm just fickle
I'm enjoying Control Unleashed as a way of thinking about impulse control. I really got it to help me with Obi but I think it may well help me with Rileys desire to meet other dogs even though he doesn't really want to play with them......I don't think there's a review up for it though.
Leslie McDevitt's book, "Control Unleashed" is great. Assuming that is what bbrown means, that book. There are lots of reviews of it on https://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=dtb943 I have used several of what the the author calls "games" to help us. I can get Oban past the big, black dog that charges the fence at us, I can get him through a maze of dogs at training and a trial and it's convinced him racing away from me first thing when I let him off the leash is not as much fun as he thought, since if he does he misses out on treats part of that game. The book is for fearful, reactive dogs and dogs who find it hard to concentrate for long. Oban would be the latter. As the book said, at first everyone else in class was telling their dog, "watch me, watch me" while i walked in saying "who's that?" (McDevitt's wording is Look at that, mine is Who'zat?) As time went on I noticed more and more people using McDevitt's ideas. They are not new, Premack Principle is probably in your decades old Psychology textbook from the last century, but she puts a fresh and entertaining spin on the telling of it.
Not throwing treats?? Horrors! That is the number one reason Simba stays near me on a walk....works for me.
I read Control Unleashed some time ago to deal with Willow barking at people or things that startled her. "Look at that!" has worked like a charm, although I don't have a verbal cue for it; my understanding was that the dog learnt to automatically look at you when she saw something she was unsure of, rather than reacting to it. That's how I've taught it, anyway. I will definitely give it another read now, with a slightly different focus this time. Thanks for the reminder.
First thing I'm doing from it with Obi is the reorienting as we change location. Garden to drive, car crate to ground etc just to get him to focus and wait for a command before he goes into full charge ahead mode
One thing I liked the idea of from the book was a "sausage tree", which is a tree you pre-load with sausages (or whatever) and "find" when on your walk. The idea is that the dog realises that you are pretty darned good at hunting, too, so maybe they should stick around. Also, by loading some higher branches that you have to bend down for the dog to reach the treats, you're nurturing team work. I have no idea if there is any scientific basis for that, or whether it will work for that means, but, having just tried it on our evening walk, I can report that they went absolutely nuts for it! Whether they really think "wow, she can hunt", or whether they just thought it was a fantastic game, I don't know, but we had great fun with it! It probably wouldn't work if you're the sole walker and live somewhere busy. I can imagine your sausage tree would be ravaged by some other passing dog before you went back for yours, but since there were two of us this evening, it worked well with J playing with the dogs in the river while I went off to load the tree. Definitely one to do again, and "sausage tree" might become my magic word
HaHa - that's in clicker gundog, only it's finding the scent of game. Charlie and I "hunt" for thing together all the time. These days it's as simple as I'll show interest in a clump of grass, he'll gallop over to "see what I've got" and find a seabiscuit! Hurrah! It does work. It's a variation on being interesting - if you can find treats, they'll keep an eye on what you are doing....
I've done it with scattering treats on the ground - I couldn't remember where I'd read that, might have been Clicker Gundog, but to load a tree with sausage was a new one on me. It definitely made me interesting
Well....it is in the end - dogs do what is rewarding. We just control the rewards, not the instinct to seek the rewards.
I found Stop better read it was short to the point and very clear. It explained what was going on well and has helped me loads with Rorys interesting chasing habits.I I'd say he's much better now and at one point to make myself more interesting i had a rucksack full of toys with me at all times.
Agree that's what is rewarding is innate. Definitely. But that's more about motivation. The behaviours that we want to train are learned. Anyway, totally agree with the main point of us needing to factor in the things that are (have evolved to be) inherently good, bad or natural for our dogs.
