Dispelling pack theory

Kathy Sdao lists reasons to dispell pack relationship between humans and domestic dogs. It's amazing how you see behaviour with different eyes if you let go of this belief. I've had people chastise their dogs for telling off Grey who perhaps has been too boistrous and rude in his body language, when in fact their dog was doing the right thing and reminding the youngster to calm down.

Similarly, that there is no point in carrying out rituals of humans eating first or going first through holes in square pieces of would i.e. doors. Sure it can be convienient to have the dog wait but not that it's going to take over the house if it goes through a space ahead of you. Are guide dogs for the blind over dominant? How many times a day do you put something in your mouth to eat when the dog doesn't? Or how about if you give the dog a bone or chew to eat and you don't? Personally I don't think Grey remembers he's just eaten. I could give him another meal and he'd just go. Oh wow! food! There are countless times he eats in the day and I don't and vice versa. I can teach him not to snatch, steal (working on this one), but in essence I think a more accurate description of him of a giant scavenger than would be despotic king of the castle.

Why put more important on ignoring your dog when you get up in the morning or come home? Aren't there loads of times during the day when you ignore your dog? Like now, I'm on the laptop. I'm on the laptop a lot throughout the day. Grey has learnt this a cue for not much happening in the foreseeable future. Might as well lie down and snooze while mum is staring at the square thing on the table as she tends to stay there for at least 20 mins. On the otherhand, if she snaps the lid shut and stands up, then this could be interesting. So why factor in set periods when you have to ignore the dog on top of a daily routine? What does he or you learn from this? When I went to a puppy class last year with puppies as little as 12 weeks. We were instructed to ignore the pups every day in the morning for 2 weeks. This was from a so called positive training class. I thought this bad during the bonding period with young pups.

Here's Kathy Sdao's article on the topic: http://www.kathysdao.com/articles/Forget_About_Being_Alpha_in_Your_Pack.html

It's very hard to find trainers who don't still have these outmoded beliefs at their core. For this reason, I've ended up training alone and with friends for the last year. I'm simply not going to have someone wrestle my dog to the ground when I can teach him a sit. Or to have me actively ignore him when I need to give him feedback.

Some recent pictures

Blackberries and learning

I've been going blackberry picking with Grey this week and it was really interesting to see his behaviour. Two things came up. One that he learned how to pick blackberries. Previously I used to give him a blackberry and he never picked one for himself despite sniffing them. But when I was just picking for myself and ignoring him, he started picking off the lower branches and ate quite a lot. So I wondered do dogs learn at all from copying humans even though we have different tools? We have hands they pick from their mouths. Or is it just opportunistic?

Second he behaved differently while I was picking than he normally would in the same field that we would go to on a walk. Effectively I was ignoring him and stationary. He stayed very close and often was laying near me or just pottering close by. He didn't do a quarter of the free running he would have done normally. So different energy from me really affects him. Interesting. I'd already seen the week previously that one way to get him to bring an object back when playing fetch is if I sat down on the ground. He was much more likely to come to me than if I was standing.

We have a breakthrough!!!!!!

While it's incredibly late, I thought I might as well write up some news that I've been meaning to post but haven't had the time since we're in the final stages of setting up the b&b. The big breakthrough is that I started doing scentwork on my own with the rabbit tug toy I bought him a while ago. The one he won't tug with outside. And now I know why. He totally loves scentwork and will give up most things to do it. This includes other dogs. This means he'll come away from most major distractions to search for his toy. And the second big change is that instead of parading around with the toy once he's found it like he used to, he brings it back and drops it at my feet or as good as near and he gets a click and a treat.

I can't tell you how happy this makes me. It completely changes the dynamic of our walk because he's much more connected to what I'm doing, has great recall and it's a total joy to see him working. Grey has never got the hang of retrieves as he was always so possessive. I know it's not perfect in many ways and some might say it's untidy to teach him early on to drop the object near me and not to deliver to hand. But to be honest after riding the rollercoaster that is managing young master Grey when out then this is too good a change to miss. So if we're going to do anything training or activity wise it looks like searching and scentwork is a goer.

He will even manage a downstay or sitstay while I walk away from him 20 paces to hide the object in long grass! Yaaaaay! I'm doing a mixture of air scenting and ground scenting. He can track back a long way now. He's also so much better on the lead on the way back to the car. We managed 24 paces doing the 300 peck heeling method.

He did get an eye injury from last week's scentwork training session with his brother. So that was a trip to the vets where they think he was poked inside the eye by something sharp. He's ok now though. Just wasn't too happy to have to have eye cream.

Comparing the brothers

We had a really fun morning out in the rain last week. Yes! In the rain! We went along on a session to learn some basic tracking and searching near Whitstable with grey's brother and littermate Gunner. My goodness, how different they are in size. Gunner is a much much bigger dog in stature and height. He always has been and probably because he is still entire that this has possibly enhanced the difference. Grey was neutered at 12 months (remember his unexpected birthday present that he wasn't too keen on!)

The scentwork training was really up Grey's street. He was very enthusiastic about his own tasks and everyone elses too! My eardrums by the end were ringing as he generally barked the whole time. I guess you could call it drive! If we continue with it, he will hopefully learn to wait his turn and that there are things that aren't for him to do.

In other news we're still working on lead walking, lead walking, lead walking. He's currently rolling around lounging on the sofa after a busy morning out in the Old Town. I have to have one gripe. Why do people think it's ok to ride bikes down the pavement and especially if there are people with prams and right next to a big dog. It's really unfair. Grey has been spooked a number of times now and it's so annoying as it can really set a dog back. Get on the bloody road you people!

Sticky buds - aaargh!

Monkeyface was covered all over his head and chest this morning with horrible sticky buds, or whatever they're called. Damn things.