At New Leash on Life Mindful Dog Training, we teach rewarding the behaviors we want, ignoring the behaviors we don’t want, and teaching the skills; the verbs ex; name, sit, down, stay, take it, leave it, drop it, get your furry butt over here, go to your place and P. S. If you are on leash you are with me !!!!!
Almost always, to start with, we use treats (various tasty morsels) to reward the newly acquired skill. Very quickly, when consistent with getting the skill, requesting the skill, and rewarding the skill with the tasty morsels, we see this new skill/behavior/verb become stronger, more consistent, faster, and sooner become part of the dog’s vocabulary.
Our sessions usually start inside the kitchen or the living room. Once the “verbs” become fairly consistent, we work outside. Everything is going well, yippee. Homework is given to practice, and we will meet again next week.
Next week, session day arrives, and we gather around my office’s kitchen table, and you give me a report. All went well, I hear. She even returned to me when I accidentally dropped the leash, and I called her off as a squirrel! I’m so proud of you, I say, “And you jackpotted her, right?”?!?!
It’s not often, but enough for me to write this article, that I hear, “No, I didn’t have any treats on me.” My heart drops. What a shame.
Dogs have incredible memories, which is why they learn so quickly. They learn that when they do the skill/verb you asked for, they get a reward or payment for a job well done.
But what do they learn when we don’t reward them? Eventually, we faze out the treats for easy skills done indoors but never for difficult outdoor tasks. Scenario….. So you accidentally drop the leash, and your dog sees a squirrel. Woof hoo OMG OMG OMG hot on its trail, your dog can taste the squirrel as she speaks, you call her, but she actually leaves the squirrel comes to you, and all she gets is a GOOD GIRL! Wha whaaa. That was not a reward but a big letdown for her. Next time, she might go for that poor squirrel.
American Express has a very famous slogan: “Never Leave Home Without It.”
So, if we think about it, we never leave home without cash or credit cards.
You never know when you need to get more gas and have to PAY FOR IT, get a coffee and PAY FOR IT, grab lunch and PAY FOR IT.
So what if we always have some tasty morsels with cash and a credit card, so when our dog does a job well done, we can PAY HER FOR IT?
Many of us do volunteer work sometimes in our lives, but when push comes to shove, we end up where we get the PAYCHECK.
“NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT”
Your dog will thank you for it. And so will the squirrel!