Here's our dog, Betty (named after our mail carrier, but that's a story for another day). She's a good old dog coming up on eleven-ish. Being a dog trainer means never having to train your own dog because you know you can always get to it some other time. At least that's the way it's been around here for the last seven years with small kids.
The "problem" is that Bett is experiencing a revitalization with a change in diet and some acupuncture. Instead of spending her golden years lying on the bed, she is back to her old tricks of darting out open doors and exploring the neighborhood. I'm thrilled to have an energetic dog back, and now I realize that it's time to do some training to fill in the gaps.
I'm curious to see how much it's going to take to work this out so I thought I'd blog about it and keep track of my training. (Maybe I'll actually DO the training then...)
Here's what's on our initial list:
- Lots of "Wait" behavior around open doors, gates, garage door, etc. Maybe this will slow her down a bit. I don't have the expectation that she will actually never ever walk out if someone leaves a door or gate unattended for more than a minute or two. I think she's too dialed in to open door = party time for that ever to leave her repertoire. This section will also have to include some counter-conditioning to the sound of the garage door opening. Right now, it's like the starting gun and she's out of here!
- Re-condition a new "Really Reliable Recall" signal. Betty comes well off-leash at the beach or park and in the house and yard (unless she doesn't really want to get up and then she'll just lie there, blending in, until you notice that she's right there). A whistle is usually her best signal, but she does not respond to it when she's on the loose -- she's no dummy.
- Practice, practice, practice recall games out in front of the leash on a long line. We usually never play around out there.
- Build a strong response to "Sit" from a distance. Betty sits quickly and smoothly so I chose that vs. "Down" -- she's a little more slow and stiff on the down. Again, practice a LOT out front.
If I have the treats already cut and ready to go, you'd think I could easily do five sessions a day of whatever for twenty trials each time. Maybe I should start a pool on how long it will take to meet our goals??
