Style

Yesterday Marley spent the afternoon at the hair salon. I don't have much need for such a place, no hair style changes for me, but I heard that Marley behaved well. Fortunately, the styling process didn't create any "monsters" for Marley.

In the evening, the OccuPaws puppies met in Oregon - no travel! In attendance were Reggie, Divit, Banjo, Timber, Cinder and Echo, who by the way has been career changed and is looking for a new home. Banjo's brother Toby and an as yet to be named Golden retriever crashed the class. The little ones played while we practiced obedience, Rally style (HALT, FRONT, SLALOM, CALL, SPIN, ABOUT, FINISH, LEAVE, PIROUETTE). The most difficult part is learning the language, I wish they would translate the instructions.

Tonight Marley visited her piggy friends at the farm and then on to training class at the Dog Den. The trainers just returned from a seminar with Dr. Ian Dunbar, doggie guru on positive reinforcement training techniques. This class is different from our usual and offers alternatives.

Marley had minor attention deficit issues. She performed STAY, COME, LEAVE IT, and PLACE well; we need help with HEEL. The problem is our attention deficit issue. The other commands are events and are corrected/praised immediately while HEEL is continuous and demands constant praise/correction.

My two tidbits of wisdom from classes this week were:
1) It's not fair to correct a dog until you teach him what to do
2) Negative reinforcement usually outnumbers the positive (3 to 1), better results are achieved with puppies using positive reinforcement

As we work through the different training styles, we are developing our own preferences. We should be better able to adapt to the needs of each individual puppy.


“The greatest fear dogs know is the fear that you will not come back when you go out the door without them.” - Stanley Coren