I Have A Confession To Make....If you've read my book 'Dog Training Blueprint To Success' http://www.dogtrainingblueprint.com or if you've been reading this zine for any length of time you'll know how much importance I attach to being consistent with your dog. It's no use praising it for doing something one day but rebuking it for the exact same thing another time. An obvious example is when your young puppy rushes up excitedly to greet you. It plants its paws on your thighs and lashes its tail from side to side in pleasure as you gently fondle its ears. How could anyone resist such an adorable creature? Fast forward to later that day. You've showered and got changed to go out to dinner. Your clothes are freshly laundered and you're dressed to impress your hot date. Just as you're about to leave you call the puppy in from where it's been playing outside. It bounds excitedly up to you and plants its muddy paws on your thighs, expecting you to fondle its ears adoringly. You've already taught it that's what'll happen when it puts its paws on your thighs. Yet this time you curse and shout - look at the mess it's made of your oufit! The poor puppy cringes away, realising you're angry, but completely uncomprehending as to the reason. How can it possibly be expected to understand that it's OK to jump up with clean feet, but not when they're muddy? So you _must_ learn to be consistent. Otherwise you will just confuse your dog and it won't understand what is expected of it. |
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And you must drill this idea of consistency deep into your subconscious so that you don't even have to think about it - it just happens automatically. However, I have a confession to make.... I live in a rural area and most of the walks I take my dogs on tend to be across fields. As the footpaths cross from one field to the next they are nearly all interconnected with stiles. As we also have to climb stiles to get off the roads and into the fields in the first place, I have taught my dogs they are not allowed to cross a stile until I say so. This is for two reasons - # I don't want to be walking up the road and them see a stile into a field and just assume we're going into the field and charge through it. They could race across the road in front of a car or tractor. # And of course as we come to the end of a walk once we've crossed the last field we have to climb a stile to get back out onto the road. If the dogs just charged through the stile they'd be straight onto the road. So what tends to happen in practice as I approach a stile is one of two things. Either the dogs are at heel in which case I need say nothing. I know that they'll stick right by me as I cross, and we'll 're-group' automatically on the other side. Or else they're running free, in which case if they get to a stile before I do they'll simply wait there until I arrive. They'll continue to wait as I climb over, then once I'm across I give them the OK and through they come. This has been my 'modus operandi' as far as stiles are concerned for more years than I care to remember. If somebody had asked me about it I would have sworn blind that it was so deeply ingrained on my subconscious mind that it would be well nigh impossible to change it. Recently we've been having a lot of very hot weather where I live and I seem to have been living in shorts. As is always the case by late summer, lots of the field margins have got nettles, thistles and brambles growing in them. The other evening when I was out with the dogs my mind was miles away. I was just walking along on autopilot while my mind was deep in thought. The dogs had come to a standstill by a stile that led out onto a little lane. The footpath at that point only had a gap of about 12 inches through which to walk - either side was a jungle of nettles. As I approached the stile the dogs were blocking the path. There was no way I could get past them without plunging bare legged through the nettles. I had no intention of doing that so I nudged the rear end of the one nearest me. That had no effect whatsoever, so I said 'go on then' or words to that effect. Still they stood there like a pair of lemons. 'Mind out' I shouted. They could tell I was getting annoyed but they were confused. I should have realised immediately what the problem was, but I was still half in my daydream so I did the worst thing possible in the circumstances. Crossly I yelled at them to get a move on, and when they _still_ wouldn't go through the stile I barged through angrily, muttering something rather uncomplementary about them. I then looked back to see them still waiting for me to call them through. In a flash I was jolted out of my reverie and realised what an idiot I'd just been. I've always been very strict with them on stile etiquette and they absolutely knew that come hell or high water they're not allowed through a stile before me. The poor things had been behaving perfectly - I should have been proud of them. Instead I'd acted like a complete and utter dolt. I was mortified that I could have been so insensitive. I had done exactly what I'm always banging on to you about not doing - I had been inconsistent. And as a result the dogs had been desperately confused, and I had undermined their confidence in me. I believe the expression is 'hoist by my own petard'! I would have been prepared to swear blind that I'm far too experienced to have made a silly mistake like that, but it just goes to show how important it is that you're always on the ball if you want to succeed in getting the best out of your dog. So learn from my mistake. Keep your wits about you, and always - yes ALWAYS - be consistent! Recommended reading "Dog Training Blueprint To Success".
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