BRILLIANT 😃 Reinforcement definitely can be something unusual. I once had a dog who LOVED to chase the ocean waves 🌊 as they crashed onto the rocks and of course it kept repeating 😆 Another dog LOVED to chase the minows left in the tidal pools.😉 My current dog, Denim, LOVES deep pressure snuggles. She was deprived of physical attention because she was a 5.5-year-old kennel dog who didn't even have a name until I got her last August. I saturated her with snuggling for a few months and now she's content with a quick hug-a-sug but a long snuggle is the very best! 💙
My dog’s reward after l come home from work, is a long walk along the beach. He gets sensory overload, so it wears him out mentally, quickly; plus chasing the seagulls into the surf is so much fun !!! He’s not allowed to roam freely around our property as we have Kiwi, and the biggest killers of Kiwi are dogs.
I've started using my dog's love of watching the neighbors as a reward for her recall. She uses them as her entertainment as she keeps track of their activities.
Always beautifully taught lessons, broken down in detail so we as students can grasp the ideas easily and build our own village from them. Thankyou doll! Always an incredible teacher 🎉
Great point on levels of reward or distraction. My dog has a really hard time with SUPER high value treats training in the house because the treat itself becomes a distraction. Good outside, not so much inside. It does increase her enthusiasm for work, though.
I will be honest I do use physical corrections sometimes but only when the behavior becomes dangerous otherwise I love to use toys praise treats and just by watching your videos I thought of afew more I could use thanks for the content keep it up
The last 2 weeks have been a heatwave in my area and I’ve been carrying a small backpack and water and a bowl for my 17mo golden retriever. I stop when I feel like she might be thirsty. I noticed after the first couple days, she would stop walking in the places I gave her water and just stared at me waiting for me to get her a drink! And now the weather has cooled a bit so I don’t carry the backpack on every walk and she still stops in those spots waiting for some water😂 So that was great testimony on the reinforcement of a drink of water!
Hi, Susan talks about a "flirt pole". If you google "flirt pole for dogs" you'll find that you can buy one or DIY and it's a great way to play with your dog :)
"have a drink" is something I can use and also looking and talking to my dog make so much sense, thank you for another wonderful video to help us all!!!!
Hi @leftieknitter7392, here's a blog post to help - susangarrettdogagility.com/2019/03/wait-watch-work/ And many tips in our video on working multiple dogs apply to help as well - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-u4L-ra0fwc8.html
What to do when the dog gets scared half to death? How to regain focus? Today a VERY big, potentially aggressive mastiff scared her, but he was not being aggressive or even barking. I had a difficult time keeping my dog on the sidewalk (out of street) as she was trying to avoid. Almost impossible to redirect and regain focus. I am surprised that your advice about no eye contact with the other dog worked for us. This is the third time we saw him, and this time, no bark, just play solicitation from him toward my dog. I would NOT enter his space as a human, but he was quite good with my dog.
It never occurred to me that breeding was a reinforcement. I'm curious what behavior you were reinforcing. My dog becomes very unfocused when it's raining. There have been a few times when he won't train at all on those days and is totally unruly. He finds alot of things reinforcing that aren't good for him such as biting me and rooting around in mulch and trying to eat scraps of plastic or paper, but he does like a certain toy that crackles (it has plastic inside a heavy duty fabric disc).
When my son was young he went fishing in the aquarium ( we didn't see this LOL ) he put the fish in the cage with our big boxer Hooch, he was so afraid of those little goldfish LOL I was able to save some of the fish.
Hi Susan, I have a question regarding frustration levels and stacking and the resulting behavior. In short my 1 year old GSD gets excited about other dogs when on walks. We're working on this. Sometimes my dog goes into crazy mode when frustration hits a threshold. Running on Leash, jumping, non stop barking, at other people and the handler, nipping even a growl. I usually pull the leash short by my side and say 'enough'. This stops it. Atleast with me. When my girlfriend walks him and he gets into that state he will do all these things. But today she came back with tears cause he went to the next level. He held on to her arm and growled while doing so. Obviously this concerns me. No blood was drawn and I wasn't there to see the situation for myself. But it is obvious that my dog respects her less in the sense that he thinks he can get away with this behavior. We are working on preventing him to get to that state in the first place. But meanwhile I need my dog to know it is never oké to grab an arm and growl, (this wasn't a quick nip) even if he's full of frustration. I know it may not be easy to diagnose the situation from text alone. But in your experience has frustration ever led to real aggression towards the handler? And what can be done against it?
Yes, that is called redirection. You need to consider a higher value reinforcement and NOT using reacting to other dogs inappropriately as a reward. This, in Susan's terms, is "self-reinforcing" a bad behavior. Start small and work on reinforcing the correct behavior, getting your dog focused on you (the handler) instead of the other dog. Reinforce calm behavior.
Have you got a busted microwave that beeps everytime you start doing a video or are you trying out a clicker for humans? If so, how is it working on your view hits?
