Every now and again you come across a little snippet of information or training advice that makes real sense or makes you stop and think. I thought it might be interesting to keep a record of some of the things that have resonated with us so that other people can benefit from them. I'll kick off. I'm currently working my way through the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast and every time a new interviewee is on, they are asked several standard questions, one of which is, "what is the best piece of training advice you have ever heard?" In the episode I listened to this morning, the interviewee chose this gem from Dr Amy Cook: Every time you train your dog, you’re teaching them how to feel. That rings so true! If you have fun in your training sessions, your dog will learn that training and being with you is fun. If you stress out about it, your dog will learn that training and being with you is stressful. I'll add more as I think of them or hear them, but feel free to add your own. What is the best piece of training advice you have ever heard?
Great idea for a thread @snowbunny There are 2 things which have made a massive difference to my training with Cassie in recent months, both from Retrieving for all Occasions book. Firstly, pick a time when your dog is looking to interact with you, and secondly to make a list of all the things your dog finds rewarding, other than food in Cassie's case. It's surprising how many other things to use there are when I put my head to it.
One of the gems I picked up recently while listening to part of a podcast, was you don't have to take your dog for a walk. Caroline Spencer was commenting on the effects of stress hormones on behaviour. Some interesting snippets here: Part of Bella & Dukes podcast series No 17
“Give him something better do.” Instead of saying no, find something you’d like him to do instead. And when I say, “Let’s do some training,” Snowie gets very waggily cos he hears: “Butter!!” and “Treats!!” Yes, he definitely feels good!
From the IMDT trainers’ course I attended recently, the fact that there are lots of different ways of training any one behaviour and that if it doesn’t hurt the dog physically or emotionally and it works, then it’s a good method. I’ve been learning from experience (helping to train a dog to walk on lead) that dogs are individuals and sometimes a new approach can work where my favourite method hasn’t. Another is the importance of play. I’ve always played with my pups at home but I think it was @JulieT who told me the value of play on a walk. I looked back at a post I made when Molly was around 14 months old and the advice to play / engage when out with her really transformed our relationship. I have absolute confidence that she will come when she’s called and will stay near me.
There are so many good training tips it's difficult but I would say, for me the great advice I was given by @heidrun when we first got Charlie our rescue boy was to hand feed him all his meals, not to waste it given in a bowl to build trust, to bond and to have him look to me to do different training to earn his food worked brilliantly Also LAT training is invaluable in our daily walks/training for Hattie & Charlie, something I will always use. Teaching 'look at me' when other dogs, children, tractors, helicopters, joggers just about anything is a huge advantage, Hattie is particularly great at this on and off lead xx
I've been catching up on a FDSA webinar by Amy Cook on thresholds and she came out with this little nugget, which I LOVE! "If you have a different dog at home than you have outside, it's because the outside is putting pressure on your dog."
Yes. I have come to a similar conclusion all on my own with Cassie. When she gets wound up and frustrated and I get upset I ask myself why I put us both outside our comfort zone to that extent , she's good and content as long as she gets the mental and physical exercise she needs, I couldn't ask more of her as a companion. Also the other thing I think is sometimes just step back, relax and let maturity come into play. There's lots of training nuggets aren't there?
Yes, she was talking a fair bit about children in the webinar, too, as that's where a lot of the research is focussed.
"What gets rewarded, gets repeated." And this isn't just applicable to those intended events during training - it applies to everything, all the time. Left some treats on the kitchen work surface and your dog has taken them? - chances are he is going to look there again. Allowed your dog to pull you all the way to an area where he is then allowed off lead to have some fantastic playtime? - guess what, pulling seems to work (from your dog's perspective). And so it goes on - dogs are always learning because we are always teaching (whether we realise it or not!)
Love this, absoluetly spot on! Also as a side issue, does anyone find they get good results with grown up humans using these techniques? As I'm learning more about positive training, I do find a lot seems to translate to the workplace and beyond...
I listened to a podcast about this, with a couple of great trainers discussing how hard they find to translate it to everyday life with humans, but when they managed to, it worked well You might be interested in reading up about TAGteach.
I've just edited a few of the above posts to put the bits of advice in bold so it's easier to scan the thread and pick out the advice amongst the discussion
Really interesting, thanks @snowbunny - I can never resist looking up research, and this is great; teaching with acoustic guidance (TAGteach) has been assessed mainly in sports performance and children with autism, but there is one study looking at teaching clinical skills to behavioural interventionists (ironic) - Meghan A. Herron, Amin D. Lotfizadeh & Alan Poling (2018) Using Conditioned Reinforcers to Improve Behavior-Change Skills: Clicker Training for Practitioners, Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 38:2-3, 172-190, DOI: 10.1080/01608061.2018.1454874 small study with some flaws, but fascinating to see work going on in that direction. Thanks again for the tip off!
