As we work through the games and lessons for Susan Garrett’s “Brilliant Recall” course, I’m learning other things not directly related to recalls, brilliant or otherwise.
First, I have been reminded daily as to why I’ve generally avoided using tugging as a training reward (other than not being an agility person and feeling forced into it, that is). Freya doesn’t like to play tug with me unless I spend a lot of time convincing her it will be fun. By that time, it doesn’t seem like big fun to me and it’s still less motivating to her than cheese. Axel, on the other hand, does like to play tug with me or anyone else, and gets into it pretty intensely. It can get a bit scary since he is a lot stronger than I am, and it almost always lasts longer than I intend it to. Having the tug on a leash helps to make sure I don’t lose possession entirely, but getting Axel to “out” is another story. I know, I know… handler FAIL. Trading for a high-value food treat usually works, but if not, it’s a very looooong motionless wait with my hand in his collar until he finally drops it. I really, really don’t want to switch gears into the old-school method of lifting his front end off the ground by his collar until he outs. Not very positive, plus on the practical side, he is heavy and I don’t think I could hold him up there for long even if I was fully on board with the method.
Another big thing I’ve learned is how differently the dogs learn. I’m not sure how much of it is genetics and how much of it is past training. Freya gets frustrated much more quickly than Axel if she doesn’t understand what she is expected to do. She’ll give up on offering different behaviors much sooner, and will go to sit in heel position at my left if she doesn’t know what else to try. Axel will offer more different behaviors and will keep trying for longer than Freya will. He will also get vocal, barking and whining when he’s frustrated, something Freya doesn’t do very often.
One very important realization is that our foundations are weak in some areas. For example, both dogs learned a “touch” command pretty early in life, but I see now how I could have trained this better and utilized it more effectively. Same with a few other very basic skills, not the least of which is the aforementioned “out.” I don’t want to get too far behind the pack on “Brilliant Recall” lessons, but I also want to make sure I give enough time to building a strong foundation, so I’m good with being no more than a lesson or two behind to get that done.
(NaBloPoMo | August ’10: 8 of 31)
[…] doing Susan Garrett’s “The Five Minute Formula to a Brilliant Recall.” I’ve mentioned before that Freya and Axel seem to have different learning styles as […]