Our long term goal is for Bello to be a powerful partner in my life. In order to achieve this goal however I also have to be a powerful partner in his life! This means that I have to cultivate a deep relationship with Bello instead of forcefully and physically making him do what I want him to do. It's the same kind of relationship I developed with my previous 2 SD NaNook and NaKoda that people admired and envied.
NaNook far right NaKoda on left
4 important things a handler needs to understand is how dogs learn, training techniques, verbal signals the dog already knows, and to manage expectations. During Bello's basic obedience and socialization we were able to gain a grasp of these 4 areas for him personally. We were able to leave our basic obedience and socialization with as a team which gave us a beautiful start for the rest of his SD training and SAR training work! By Bello being obedient to me and not just responsive to his obedience commands Bello and I are now invested in the relationship!
It is very important that through out Bello's SD training we continue the obedience commands and socialization. Bello is with me 24/7. He goes everywhere I go and does everything I do. We also schedule daily socialization experiences with a group of women who also have dogs. Some of these dogs are also in Bello's SAR training group and some of the dogs are strictly companion animals. No matter what type of lifestyle they lead though they all need the socialization and by having these daily walks together and allowing them off leash together they learn proper dog manners as well as people manners since we walk in a city park that is heavily used! When we are not enjoying Bello's daily doggie play dates as we go about our daily routines we are constantly using the obedience commands and socialization in my world allowing him opportunities to learn my body language, voice commands and hand signals to know what is acceptable an what is not acceptable behaviors at home and out in the world.
As Bello moves through cementing the obedience, learning manners and socializing there are many techniques I must use to help him understand and learn the behaviors and skills that I need him to have. I use positive behavior because I do not believe the old training ways of force and aggression help to build a positive relationship between myself and my SD.
1. Create the behavior/skill - for example catch the dog in the act, coax the dog into the behavior I want and gradually over time shape into the perfect behavior/skill
2. Give the behavior/skill a name - for example when I want Bello to load up in the cab of my truck we approach the truck where he sits while I unlock the door (also another behavior we learned) then when the door is open and I am ready for him to get in I say "load up" and he promptly jumps into the cab of the truck, moves over to the passenger seat and sits where I promptly put his seat belt on him.
3. Mark the behavior - in the beginning of learning to "load up" once his seat belt was on I would give him a training treat and verbally reward him for the behavior. Now, since he has learned this we have removed the treat and now just give verbal praise!
4. Release - once the behavior/skill is performed release the dog.
As we move forward with Bello's SD training and move into harder skills/behaviors specific to SD's and the specific skills he needs to be of service to me we will continue to use the above methods to learn, accomplish and reward his new behaviors and skills! It is important that we continue to practice and utilize his obedience skills while learning new skills/behaviors. We will not avoid Bello's problem areas, we will reward the behaviors he is strong at but will not dwell on the problem areas. We will just continue to work on the until he succeeds! We will continue to engage in his distraction work so that he will not be distracted in any setting we may find ourselves in. Most importantly though as we move forward into learning his actual SD skills/behaviors we will continue to make time to bond and strengthen our relationship with fun adventures!
No comments:
Post a Comment