More on consequences

Hi Kaye,

We had a very fine visit from Julie yesterday. Fido and I have been getting
on great guns. Leading is going very well. I've backed off a bit, I'm
cutting him a bit more slack and have put more emphasis on having fun so I
didn't feel quite as desperate for help.

I started by asking Julie about consequences. Like you, she is very against
any sort of punishment but she did come up with some strategies. She related
the story of 'Who's dog knows sit', where Ian Dunbar poses lots of
situations to test test how well a dog know sit. Apparently most trainers
'sit' didn't work if they faced away from the dog. Only one in stadium full
went through the full gamut of variations, siting herself asking the dog to
'Sit' til eventually she was able to get her dog to sit with her lying down
with the dog at her head.

She used this example to help me realise how hard it is to be sure the dog
understands what we are asking. If there is any doubt then punishment is
totally out of place.

Julie advised I give him a bit more lee-way and train very simple things in
a wide variety of situations. We didn't actually do any dog handling. We
just talked, but I think it will give me a broader perspective. She also
said that lots of trainers give young dogs long breaks, months off.

I have been very aware of time slipping by. I guess I will fall head first
into every man trap and hopefully learn, in time, to avoid a few!

Julie has loaned me a bunch of DVDs; Jean Donaldson, Blue Dog Training, Ted
Turner and Pat Millers book The Power of Positive Dog Training.

Cheers,

Richard