school’s out! Or is it…?
We may be deep in the middle of the school holidays, and others may be as irked as I am by the fact that M&S are already advertising school uniform sales (how unfair is that!), but that doesn’t mean to say that learning here at HoM is on holiday too.
Brilliant trainer and behaviouralist Olivia Turner keeps in regular contact with the dogs she works with both at home and while up here. Seeing them in both environments gives her a really good understanding of how they think, what their particular motivations are and, sometimes, what’s causing their confusions. When she arrives I love seeing the reactions of dogs who know her well - generally they go nuts as they recognise her but it’s a bottom-on-the-floor kind going nuts as they also know they have to behave! One such is Dante, a beautiful Flatcoat Retriever who has regular fun sessions with her to learn new tricks. He’s very smart at working out as quickly as possible what to do to get a snack…
His challenge this last visit was to learn to stay on his bed at home while his owners are having their meals.
The scene was set: Harriet, Daisy and Olivia sat down to ‘tea’. The bed was placed at a respectful distance from the table. Dante was positioned on his bed. The Tea Party began.
Dante was rewarded with a treat for staying on his bed. Note the reward wasn’t in response to any action on his part other than lying quietly on his bed. He didn’t get one if he moved off it and then had to be moved back; he wasn’t bribed on to it; he just got an unexpected treat for doing what he was wanted to do.
Whenever he tried to move off his bed, he had no fuss made of him but was firmly pointed back in the direction of the bed.
And then later rewarded for being there.
Once he’d got that idea, he was gradually challenged that little bit more. In this case first by Harriet moving away from the table, and then by Olivia.
Sorted, job done, he’s got this!
Watch out in the video for Olivia rewarding the good behaviour. And watch out for Dante’s expression as understanding dawns…!
It’s all about timing - so you’re rewarding the good behaviour, the behaviour you want to encourage, with either praise or treat. It’s remembering to do that when the dogs are being good that is the challenge for most people. It happens all the time with dogs jumping up and getting the attention they want by being spoken to and pushed down - the word may be a ‘no’ and the push a not-very-gentle-stroke, but as far as they’re concerned that counts as Attention! So with Dante in the video or with a dog jumping up, remember to look out for and reward the ‘good’ behaviour as opposed to waiting for them to do the ‘wrong’ thing and then inadvertently rewarding that.
And if anyone wants to nominate the HoM tea party team for an acting nomination at next year’s BAFTAs, please feel free to do so!