This is what it looks like when I walk Darwin.
This graphic by the way, comes from the great store Beauty of the Beasts, home to hundreds of fabulous t-shirts for dog crazy people.
Actually Darwin is getting better. Better in this case means that I've managed to train a wonderful behavior chain which consists of Darwin starting off walking well (for two steps), dropping his head & leaning forward like he's in a tractor pull, me giving a stop cue: Dar-WIN!!!!, Darwin spinning back around me (on my right side, thus wrapping leash around me), and Darwin returning to heel position on my left. Then two steps of walking well & repeat.......
We're both dorks & I know I'm the bigger dork because I KNOW how to fix it (here's how, by the way. That's part 1. The video continues in part 2 & 3.). I just have to do it. And we've been making progress at loose leash walking (LLW) when he's on his own, it's just the realities of walking with two other dogs, schedules, etc (I can put in more excuses if you like....) which means that most of the time he does not get as much one-on-one as he needs/deserves.
What I suspect though is that even when we get the LLW down, there will always be a small risk of Darwin galloping off with my arm. I think that sometime in the past he either broke a tether or pulled a leash from someone's hand & had the hugest jackpot reward of his life. (bird? squirrel? overturned hot dog cart?) Even when he's walking nicely, I'm maintaining a high rate of reinforcement, everything is going well, he's prone to suddenly launching himself into the air. No warning, no indication. Just suddenly: SPROING! I want to be 50 feet to the left of you hornblower! Oh darn! Your arm is still attached to your torso! And none of the heavy duty gear you've shoved on me has broken! Pout...... Ah well. I'll try again later!
I was organizing some pictures on the computer & found these. It's a set of photos shot by Roo this summer while camping. I'm watching Roo & the kids fish on a sandspit & I'M BORED. Can you tell how bored? Darwin is not bored. Darwin is thinking: BIRD! Daisy is thinking, hmmm? What chance of cookies? Don't you want to do some training?
This time around there was a warning. You can see Darwin leaning, you can see I've noticed it, and I'm pretty sure I took a step forward to try to block him a split second later. Voice is useless, his auditory processing seems to completely turn off when BIRD mode locks on, & so a body block is the only chance I have. And I didn't get in front of him in time.
Roo missed the part where Darwin launched himself, & ripped several muscles in my arm. Instead he caught the split second later when I yelled 'DARWIN, JUST WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING??!!!" Hello, I'm a clicker trainer & I'm yelling at my dog on the beach! Look at Daisy's ears. She's all: "oh no, mom is mad! You're in trouble now, Darwin!"
My arm is only attached to me by this polar fleece coat, you crazy dog! Now, for the last time Darwin, sit here nicely & stop being a jerk!!!!!!
What was I thinking? I mean really. A good trainer is supposed to know when it's time to quit. It's clear his brain has fallen out of his head & been replaced by a large glowing BIRD!!!!!
Hello? Darwin! I'm talking to you!
That's when I realized it was time for the next phase of training: Idle threats.
That's it. Forget it. We're leaving. And Darwin, if you think I'm ever going to take you anywhere again, young man, you are sadly mistaken. You will spend the rest of your life in the campsite and see how you like it. You wretched dog. Do you know how much Robaxacet costs? That is coming straight out of your toy allowance. You know what I should do? I should just let you go. Yup. Go. Just go swim across the lake chasing after the duck and get cramp and drown and do you think I'd do anything? NO. Because I can't swim with my shoulder all frozen up so I couldn't come after you. And whose fault is that? ..........
You can see how concerned Darwin is about my rant.
Oh he's got drive all right. Now if only we can channel it for good......
6 comments:
OMG - I almost peed laughing at those photos and your commentary! HAHAHAHA. I have been in a similar situation too often not to appreciate the totally idle, though at the time heartfelt, threats. Good Daisy - smart Daisy. Hope your arm is better.
That was hilarious!! I think you need to take up bird hunting. Direct Darwin's 'drive' into helping you catch his own food:) It would be kind of fun though to be able to take him somewhere and have him learn how his breed is supposed to hunt. Don't know if you could do that without having to shoot, yourself. As in not 'shoot yourself', but you shooting off a gun:)
Yeah, the loose leash walking can go really well in those one on one training sessions, but the time it takes to transition from that to going for a walk where you're actually going somewhere and getting some exercise is where many of us fail. Add a couple of other dogs into that mix, and well, forget it. Been there, well more like, am there, and am probably staying there.
It's always fun to read a post that you can totally relate to. Misery loves company I guess!
In Darwin's defense, there is an interesting animal behavior study they did on cats a few years back that could explain his ADD.
They did a study where they hooked a cat up to electrodes and put it in a cage with varying stimuli. Normally, when an animal sees or hears something it launches an excitatory response in that part of the brain. (clearly you're familiar with this...lol) So, when they showed the cat a prey animal, obviously there was an excitatory response in the visual area of the brain. They played a loud tone in the cage and measured the nerve impulses to the brain in the sound reception area. If they played the tone and then showed the cat a prey animal, they could actually see an INHIBITORY response going to the sound reception area of the brain. The cat's brain literally "turned down" his ears so he could focus more intensely on the prey. I think that is pretty amazing, and there's no reason to believe a similar thing doesn't happen in dogs.
THIS is one of the reasons I think it's important for people to be open to different training techniques. I use an e-collar that has a vibrate mode. Doesn't it make perfect sense that when my dog is focused on a prey animal and his brain has made him half deaf that physical stimuli (vibration) would be just what I need to snap him out of it?
We can say "he acted like he couldn't even hear me", but it's way cool when the science backs it up.
You don't have to shoot yourself, btw. ;) I used to fire off blanks (just a cap gun works fine) and launch birds with a launcher or by hand all the time for training. They even make real fancy remote control launchers now. Holy $$$!
Hilarious. I heard about a woman yesterday who sprained her knee while walking... her Chihuahua. I think Darwin might have actually killed her. Good luck with training!
Darwin is gun shy. Before I adopted him, he was screened at the rescue by someone who hunts & trains for hunting & she indicated he's scared of the sight of a gun. She said he didn't react much to the actual gunshot sound, which is weird because with me he's terrified of fireworks & sharp banging sounds, even on TV.
He's also scared of small, black plastic square boxes held in your hand - yup, he was on an e-collar for a large chunk of his life & if you point something at him, like a camera say, he cringes :-(
He's also scared of sticks....Who knows what he's been through?
The comments I've had from gundog trainers is that he shows signs of what is almost post traumatic stress. Some ecollar trainers keep constant 'stim' on the dog & only turn it off if the dog finds a bird. Dogs become frantic to search & point birds.
I don't & won't hunt but I am on a Positive Gundog email list, full of clicker & other positive trainers, because I want to learn to work with the natural breed inclinations to help him become all that he can be. I can't even trial with him as the hunt tests here are all about retrieving (& seem to be only open to actual retrievers - setters & pointers & spaniels are not admitted. In the UK, they have more different tests which many more breeds can compete in) so we're adapting things as much as we can.
I actually think he is wonderful. I love english setters so much!
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