Focus

One of my main goals in training Abby is to get her to focus on me in stressful environments. As a sight hound focusing on a stationary object is hard enough, but add that to a lack of socialization and you get a dog that focuses on everything but me. I know how to get a dog to focus on me, and I have been working with Abby, but I still need some extra help. To get that, I am turning to other trainers I trust and to training books - Control Unleashed is my current read. And while the book is mainly used by agility trainers, it's sole purpose is to create a focused and confident dog. (Does that sound like something I need???)

I just started the book but one thing has already stuck out. She says "I find it odd how many people want their dogs to focus on them when they are not at all focused on their dogs" (pg 62). I wanted to laugh out loud when I read that sentence because last night I attended a doggie dancing class and was struck by how many of the students weren't focused on their dogs. These people were attending a class to have fun with their dogs, but they were often more concerned with their own foot work/leash work/teacher than what their dogs were doing.

All this comes on the heels of re-reading The Culture Clash. There are many important points in this book and many reasons why I recommend people buy it, but in this specific context it is for the explanation of the differences between owner-handlers and trainer-handlers (pg 164). A study was conducted to find out who dogs responded to more: owner-handlers or trainer-handlers. A training session was set up and video taped. The parameters were the same for both groups (ie: training collars, food rewards, dogs). It was determined that the dogs responded to the trainers more often then their owners. Surprising? Not to anyone who has attended an obedience class with their dogs.

The interesting thing about the study wasn't that the dogs responded to the trainers more, it was why. It turns out that the trainers paid more attention to the dogs then their owners did. Ok, that was the over-simplified version. The explanation from the study was that the trainers gave the dogs feedback every 6 seconds where as the owner only gave feedback every 20 seconds.

Take that bit of information and add it to the "coke-machine" scenario. If you put a dollar into a coke machine you expect to get a coke back. If you put a dollar in and you don't get a coke back, what would you do? After you kicked that machine, you would try another machine. You sure as hell wouldn't put another dollar in the neglectful machine. The same is true with dogs. If the dog is offering behaviors, such as "watch", and the owner is oblivious and not rewarding for the behavior, the dog will eventually find something more rewarding to do.

Paying attention to your dog while you are learning something new in a training class can be difficult, but s/he is the sole purpose for attending the class. And it is equally important not to loose the "old behavior" as it is trying to learn a new one.