Friday, October 16, 2015

I ADMIT IT, I HAVE BEEN WRONG MOST OF MY LIFE.....

Last night, or should I say early morning, I could not sleep. Not wanting to waste this productive moment, I surfed the web on ye olde iPad. I visited Karen Pryor's website and was cruising around the Library and discovered an article penned by Irith Bloom.  http://www.clickertraining.com/beyond-clicking-and-treating-the-power-of-choice

A lot of interesting things about the usual clicker stuff. One thing stood out in the discussion. She was talking about taking your dog/s for a walk, and the importance that they have some say in the event.

This is how taking walks have occurred for me for the last 4 decades. I put all (up to 5 dogs) on their leads. Pandemonium has broken out already, dogs running in circles, yelling barking, leashes getting mixed up. I open the door and 250 pounds on 16 legs drag me through the front door. I can understand this, the dogs knew I had come back from my run, and now it was their time.

Immediately they attempt to drag me to the nearest tree. My anger surges, how dare they drag me like that. We then surge to the next treasure trove of smells. Oh and wait there is that dog that we hate so much. Now we are stuck against the fire hydrant wanting to smell each one of the 309023568 dogs that have visited it over the last 3 years. I don't have time for this crap, I want to get this 2 mile walk over and done with. Proceed to drag 4 dogs going in different directions in the general direction of where I want to go.

Cursing ensues, the wall flower dog starts looking sad, oh great now I feel bad. If they would all just be more obedient and walk properly. After 40 minutes of cursing, dragging and poop scooping I make it back home. Thank God, that chore is out of the way. Maybe the dogs won't be inventive and eat anything of importance for the next hour.

MOVE forward 24 hours. The usual pandemonium, dogs screeching,doing handstands, running off the walls. All successfully tethered I allow them out the front door. I apply enough back pressure to prevent them from ripping my arm out of its socket.

THEN SOMETHING AMAZING HAPPENS.

Usually I stop reading any post that has those four words in that order. BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE. I allowed the dogs to go up to what they wanted to smell. I allowed them to spend as much time as they wanted to process all the smells. Then at their own pace we moved forward to the next fragrant tree, lamppost or other structure that held scent. We made our way around our usual walk investigating every inch. Quite a while later we made it back home.

The Result: 4 very happy dogs, pictures below attest to this. AND I felt better, more relaxed.


So what's going on here.
Imagine you are a man or woman, who was in a small boring room for the last 8 hours. Your better half arrives and puts the imaginary lead on and says we are going for a walk through your favorite place. (Home Depot, Apple store or fill in the blank) You arrive at the store and your better half immediately starts dragging you through the store at speed.

We are visual beings, we want to look at all the goodies on the shelves, we want to stop to admire them, look at the price. Maybe pick it up. The other half will have none of that, she brought you here so she could walk you through the store as fast as possible. This upsets you, you feel that you have no control over your life, and the other half is pissed off with you now. You are very attuned to them, what have you done wrong?

Dogs are exactly the same, the only difference is you replace sight with smell.


BUT, I have to be in control of the dog, it has to be obedient. NO not really. Is this an obedience lesson? Do you have your clicker and reward system when the dogs all do exactly what you want. Again NO. I am sure you do not like it when someone is shouting instructions and expecting you to follow orders all the time.

The way I approach the problem is that I do not allow the dogs to drag me. If one dog stops, all the dogs have to stop (more than likely the other dogs will want to find out why that dog stopped anyway). I allow them to move forward in a controlled manner. If the dogs are too strong for you consider using a gentle leader, those puppies can control beasts with gentle pressure. The dogs may not attack other dogs, cross roads and generally not chase ambulances and fire engines. That is for their safety. If you have cued the correct behavior like sitting and it can be reproduced in these instances, this would be a great opportunity to reward the dogs. That's not obedience, it is a reward.

Remember this walk is not an opportunity for you to get your exercise in for the day. Do that on your own time. The walk is there to provide the dogs with much needed mental stimulation and a little bit of exercise. It is more about actual time spent outside. Distance is irrelevant. If you are unable to provide at least 40 minutes of this stimulus to your dogs every day consider finding them a better home.

The end effect: I feel satisfied because I allowed the dogs to have some say in how they interact with their environment. I feel closer to them because I actually observed them being dogs. The dogs come home and go to sleep :)

PS. Even better for the dog and you. Take the dog for a walk somewhere were it does not have to be on a lead. This is not open to everyone, but if you can, your dog will thank you.

If you feel this strikes a chord, share it with your friends, it might just make some other puppies very happy :)

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