The Lords (well, Lady) of Discipline, or Dog Training 101a

The other day, while Prada was still with us (no, she's fine -- we were puppy sitting), Carolyn decided she was going to teach the dogs to sit and stay. Now, all the dogs will sit. For about thirteen seconds, then they get distracted and walk away, lie down, chase a cat, watch TV, whatever.

So Carolyn had a bag of dog treats in her hand, which did tend to focus their attention somewhat, and was trying to teach them to sit and stay. Like a good Skinnerian, she rewarded them as soon as they did any part of what they were supposed to do. So as soon as they sat on command, she started to give them their reward. And as soon as she pulled out a treat to reward them, Cinnamon jumped up on her hind legs and continued to jump. You know those dogs in the circus that get up on their hind legs and jump around the ring? That's a natural behavior with Cinnamon. And probably with Poms in general. In fact, it's possible that all the dogs in the circus that do that trick are Poms, I don't remember.

Anyway, Carolyn would get them to sit. Then she'd tell them to stay. Then she'd make her mistake: she turned her back on them and walked away. And of course, our two, who aren't trained, would follow her. Prada, who used to be trained, sat for a few moments, THEN followed her. Eventually, the dogs trained Carolyn to face them as she backed away. Our two still followed her but Prada stayed seated. Fidgeting. She was wanted to sit and stay and earn her treat, but she was sure the other two girls who were closer to Carolyn, would get them all. How do I know what she was thinking? Trust me, you could read that dog like a thirty foot neon sign. When Carolyn walked back and only rewarded Prada you could see that smug look on her face as she thought "HA! You guys never learn!"

Bear Paw (the BDE*) would sit and stay like a champ. Which actually turned out to be a problem, one day. I had walked him and Lexi over to Susannah Mlynarczik's house one spring day, and left him tied up outside. They had cats that weren't used to dogs. After visiting for a while, I left Lex and started home. Abouut half way there I felt like something was missing. Something I had when I went there got left. YOU know what it was. When I realized I ran back (I was in better shape then, after all, we're talking about twenty five years ago) to get him.

And there he was, sitting patiently right where I'd left him. He knew I'd come back and get him. After all, I'd told him to sit and stay, and that's exactly what he'd done. Without a peep, as I'd walked right past him earlier.

Now THAT was a well trained dog. In charity (and embarrassment) I won't say much about the owner.

So Carolyn sort of got Midnight trained to sit and stay, some of the time. You could tell while the repititions were going on that Prada was thinking "OK, I'll help teach you two how it's done. See? I'm the role model." And Midnight would remember how to do this for about six minutes, thinking "OK, this is a new technique for getting treats -- helping Carolyn learn to train." While Cinnamon jumped around on her hind legs saying "See? I'm trained! I'm trained! Aren't I good?"

Lady of Discipline, indeed.

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Pictures of the dogs mentioned in this blog may be found in the Image Galleries.

*Best Dog Ever