Monthly Archives: January 2011

More and More Snow

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The snow keeps piling on here in Hancock New York. There is so much snow in some places it looks like little Tank has become a mole digging through the snow. A few days back, we got a storm that layered the already existing snow with a thick sheet of ice so, the dogs have been prohibited the dogs from doing work in the woods. This surprise layer of ice has been a major bummer for all parties. The dogs can’t get a lot of exercise; the members of Dog Corps can’t go out, and we can’t start Tank’s cadaver training. Have no fear though! Around here, especially with the dogs there is always something to do…Off to the basement!!!!

With a handfull of treats, we  are off to work with Rippley, Raven, Tank and Tiberious. They are learning and sharpening up their sit, lay down, look, and stay. For Rippley and Raven, this is somewhat of a flashback to kindergarten. But for Tank and Tiberious, this is all relatively new to them. We don’t actually use the words sit, laydown, look, and stay at all however because the action itself is just too new for the dogs. To say the word for the action, would confuse them. So, we used motions, with treats in our hands, to lure them into position and then reward them. This was another very fun day and was this classes first real try at…

THE TRAINING OF A DOG.

Positive Reinforcement

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One of the ways that dogs can be trained (and people too for that matter) is by reinforcing a behavior or a movement which you want continued. The way to go about doing this is by rewarding the action right after the dog does it. Using the technique of shaping is one way to teach a dog that you like this action and that you want them to continue doing it. As you can imagine, when you first start trying to trying teach a dog a desired action, it can be very confusing for the dog. It is hard for them to figure out what exactly it is that you want them to do. So, to experience this type of confusion and to use the type of thinking that our K9 friends have, we set up a little experiment…

We became the dogs. We chose one kid to be the dog and one kid to be the trainer. We silently selected an action for the person to do, i.e. jumping jack, touch their nose, touch their head, sit down, etc… Then the fun began! The “dog” was to make the movements and then get rewarded when the movement was close to the desired action. And since kids don’t like fish and venison treats, we used Skittles and M&M’s. The “dogs” began flailed around and getting rewarded while trying to figure out the desired action.

This little exercise, though very fun and very tasty, provided an  important look into a dog’s world and dog training from a dog’s point of view.