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Subject: [working-gundog] knitting circle logic fails the dog

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cwalt

MH
Posts:180

10/31/2007 9:15 AM
As a long time (old) dog trainer one attitude has always puzzled me, that of people who insist that they will never deceive their dog in any way. I use many techniques to induce a dog to make mistakes so that it can be corrected. This is necessary because correction is a primary element in the last stages of training a command. Without corrections a trained command is always a problem for the dog that might change its mind... the dog hasn't been taught the consequences of a refusal. The lack of corrections in training is an old and common problem. The astonished trainer at the test who complains that his dog 'never did that before' is a classic. In teaching the retrieve the 'fetch' command is usually taught as a releaser that lets the dog do something it wants to do. This is fine for the trainer and the dog so long as the retrieving is done on land. The problem is that the dog knows 'fetch' is a releaser (permission to do) whereas the trainer thinks that the 'fetch' is a command to do something. Now the dummy is tossed into water, which the dog doesn't care for, and the dog refuses to retrieve the dummy. The dog has declined to respond to a releaser, the 'fetch' means nothing because the dog doesn't intend to go into the water. The confused trainer, however, thinks that the dog has disobeyed a command. The dog is correct because 'fetch' is a releaser, the trainer is wrong because 'fetch' isn't a command and was never trained as a command. Now the problems really start, the dog is corrected for "refusing a command", the dog is confused because 'fetch' wasn't trained as a command. The reciprocal interactions between dog and trainer deteriorate rapidly because the dog is as confused as the trainer. Pretty soon the only thing that can save the situation is a professional trainer who knows the difference between a releaser and a command, a person who can convey that difference to the dog's frustrated 'trainer'. This is a problem for the training books since many of them don't distinguish between a releaser (you can do it) and a command (you must do it). This isn't a discussion of semantics, dogs don't understand words, they only know what they have been taught to do. The sad situation is that the trainer has taught the dog to do something he never intended and the trainer has completely misunderstood the dog's responses to his words. Teaching the dog the difference between 'can' and 'must' is primarily the act of correcting the dog when it makes a mistake. Unfortunately those who refuse to induce a dog to make mistakes can wait for years for the dog to make a mistake on its own... their dogs are never properly trained. Cj

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