Never Stop Training

Yesterday, Patricia McConnell posted "Gotta Love That Recall" on her blog, and while I read and recommend her as often as I can, I also noticed the specific phrase which I've poached for the title of this post: Never stop training.

I'd been thinking about this lately, in fact, when a certain long nosed miss started nosing up to peoples' plates in a manner she had not otherwise displayed. I may or may not have been mostly unbothered by this, for it was rarely, if ever, my plate she was getting too close to. This is Elka, who I can leave in the car with McDonald's or other takeout and she will not touch is. Elka, who has been in a room with a coffee table full of nachos and dip and even pigs in a blanket and not touched a thing. Elka, who dropped a turkey sandwich she had in her mouth when I said "drop it", and left along a dropped tupperware of taco meat when I said "leave it".

(forgive the old picture, I don't have a new one of her lurking in the "safe range" of food that is not hers)

Command Clinic: That's not your problem.

"That's not your problem" is a cue I developed with Elka, because of course I can't possibly take peoples' advice when they say to keep cues simple. She's smart enough, I feel that simple cues don't always get the point across. Or, they come to mean a broad category, and don't really apply to the next category.

So, while "Leave it" would suffice for most dogs, for Elka, "leave it" refers to items, objects, and wildlife in the yard.

"That's not your problem" applies to other dogs, either in view or barking blocks away. It applies to people walking past on the sidewalk across the street, car doors closing, people coming home next door, etc. The longer phrase seems to assure Elka that yes, I do see the issue, and she can leave it.

A walk in the other park

On occasion, Elka and I hop into the car and go to another park that's just outside of town. It's nice and quiet there, and there tend to be few people or other dogs around. 

Command Clinic: Look at That

All right, all right. "Look at that" isn't really a command. I've heard it described as a game, which I suppose is sort of it.

"Look at that" is something you may have heard of if you're interested in clicker training and positive methods of training. It's in the book Control Unleashed, by Leslie McDevitt. It's sort of what I've done when working with Elka in respect to other dogs. At absolute perfection, I want her to just be able to ignore other dogs. At worst, I want her to be able to be calm around them. Lofty goals, right? Shoot for the stars!

The Funny Thing About Counter Conditioning

There are a few things I've worked on with Elka on our walks.

First all, the Holy Grail of walking a dog, especially a big one: loose leash walking. I'm happy to say that, combined with the clicker, repetition and improved consistency (I've never said I was perfect; I just play it on the Internet), Elka walks loose leash very well. I still Heel her on my right. We're also working on the left, for which I use the cue "Fuss", which is German for "heel", so we can act all fancy.

We've also worked on reactions to two persistently present things: barking dogs, and machinery, be it from construction or from yard work.