Tricky T-Day: Are you a reliable doggie?

OK – this isn’t really a trick but it’s something all doggies can have fun trying!

Remember back in Feb, Hsin-Yi went back to NZ for a seminar by the world-famous vet & behaviourist, Dr. Ian Dunbar? She learnts lots of interesting things about doggie behaviour and also lots of good training tips.

 Hsin-Yi wanted to do a big post telling you all about what she learnt but then she got very busy…and then busier…and then busier…and in the meantime, I kept having lots of other adventures that she had to help me post about…so in the end, she never had time to write her big post.

But she did start preparing it – and so I thought I would show you the bit she already prepared first ‘coz if I wait until she has time to finish the whole thing, I’ll probably never show it to you!

So anyway, here is one of the interesting training tips that Hsin-Yi learnt – well, she sort of guessed this anyway just from her own experience training doggies but it was good to hear it from a doggie expert:

Dogs don’t generalise well.

What does this mean? Well, it means that us doggies only learn things in a very specific way. Unlike humans who can learn one thing and then use what they learnt in lots of different situations, doggies can only understand and do things in the exact way / place / time we learnt them. So for example, if our humans first teach us “Sit” in the kitchen, that’s exactly what we learn – to “sit in the kitchen”! We become “kitchen sitters” but not anything else. For us to learn “Sit” properly, we then need to learn to do it again in the living room, hallway, bathroom, garden, street pavement, outside a cafe, in training class, etc, etc…

…and it is not just the place. If we learnt in the kitchen with nobody else there, it’s not the same thing as doing a “Sit” when the kitty is there next to us or when there are yummies on the counter or when the human pups are running around or when our human isn’t holding a treat in front of our nose…see, they are all completely different situations to us and we only learn a command properly when we have learnt to do it in LOTS of different places & times and with LOTS of different distractions…

"Sit" in a parade with a silly costume on...

"Sit" at the beach with sand in my bum...

"Sit" in training class, with strange doggies around...

"Sit" on a high ledge, by sea & boats...

"Sit" when there are yummies in front of my nose!

This is why sometimes our humans can’t understand why we  doggies don’t follow a command which they think we know already – they say, “But he does it perfectly at home!” Ah. But “doing it at home” is a totally different thing for us doggies. We don’t realise that it is the same as ‘doing it at the park’ unless you have shown us and made us practise.

That’s why, for example, we might come when called at home – but don’t come when called at the park! Hey, how are we supposed to know that “Come” means ‘run to our humans wherever we are, no matter what distractions there are’? We can only learn that if our humans teach us “Come” -

• when we’re out in the garden…
• and then when we’re at the park with nobody there
• and then when we’re at the park with maybe doggies in the distance
• and then when we’re at the park with doggies closer to us
• and then when we’re at the park when there are yummies left on the ground
• and then when we’re at the park when there are rabbits to chase…

…you see? Baby steps. When we have practised all those situations and many more, then we might start to know what “Come” really means. But until you can put in the time & effort to teach us in all those situations, how can you expect us to just know?

This is why lots of humans get it wrong when they think they can take us doggies to one puppy class or teach us a few commands at home - and that’s it – we’re “trained”. We should now always behave and obey perfectly wherever we are…HA! That would be like taking a human pup to kindergarten and teaching them 4 letters of the alphabet – and then expecting them to be able to read and write and get a job and run a company!! See, humans always like to have “quick fixes” and “instant results” but unfortunately, there are no shortcuts in dog training – there is no quick way to do things, not if you want to get really good, reliable results - the only way to have a well-behaved, reliable doggie is to spend time practising with us.

In fact, you could say that a doggie isn’t really ‘trained’ until it can follow its commands in every situation – and since you can never cover EVERY situation in life, a doggie is never really 100% trained – but you can get pretty close by practising in as many places & situations as possible. See, I have been doing lots of training with Hsin-Yi for a long, long time and I am pretty good in lots of different situations – but Hsin-Yi still finds new ways to test me all the time. It’s sort of fun – like a game. Like humans who are good at climbing like to keep finding new mountains to try. 

Of course, the more situations I am tested in, the less will be strange to me – so that slowly, over time, there is less and less chance that I won’t follow my commands - which means more and more chance you could call me “trained”! People always go on about me being a “very well-trained, well-behaved” doggie but there is really no magic secret to it – no special power that Hsin-Yi has – all she’s done is practise my training with me in lots and lots of situations. You know what they say – “practice makes perfect” – any doggie could be well-behaved if they get lots of practice!

OK – so do you want to find out how reliable a doggie you are? Here’s a fun test that Dr. Ian Dunbar told everyone to try. You don’t need to know anything fancy – you just have to know ‘Sit’ (you can also try Down & Stand too, if you’ve learnt those things) – and here’s what you do:

1. Lie down on the floor (or stand, if you’re not good at lying down).
2. Get your human to lie down on the floor too, straight in front of you, with their head pointing towards you.
3. From their position on the floor, they should tell you “Sit” – and see if you can do it. They mustn’t try to help you in any way, like use their hands – just the verbal command, although they can use praise to guide you & encourage you.
4. If you can do Sit, then your human can try the other commands, “Down” and “Stand” – see if you can go through them all – do some “Puppy Push-Ups”! eg. Sit – Stand – Down – Stand – Sit – Down.
5. If you can do it with your human lying down (or even if you can’t!) – try it now with your human standing in front of you but facing away from you, so you can’t see their faces. Again, no hand signals – only verbals.
6. Expect lots of giggling and confused doggies!

You see, to humans, “Sit” is really obvious – but to us doggies, it is totally weird and different when our humans are saying it lying down on the floor in front of us! Aren’t they supposed to be standing in front of us, maybe holding out a treat? Maybe giving a hand signal? What are they doing lying on the floor? What are we supposed to do now??

Don’t worry if you do something silly! Dr. Ian Dunbar said that even lots of really “well-trained” doggies (like Obedience champions) fail this test ‘coz they only learnt to do things in a set way (with very specific signals & body positions from their humans) and in a set place (the competition ring). That means they’re not really trained at all – despite all their trophies & ribbons! They’ve just learn to follow signals, like a robot. But he says it is really important for doggies to understand their commands by learning to do them in lots of different situations.

This is much more useful, especially, if you’re a pet doggie and going to spend most of your life in the ‘real world’ which is constantly changing, rather than in the competition ring. And even if you’re a doggie that does a lot of training with your human, you often spend all your time learning lots of new fancy stuff without remembering to “proof” all your basic stuff!

OK – so as soon as Hsin-Yi got home from the seminar, she tried the test with me! Here’s the movie:

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My friends, Bodie the Border Terrier and Mozzie the Bearded Collie-cross, back in NZ, also tried it with Bodie’s human too:

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Tee! Hee! What do you think? Do us doggies look confused or what?!

OK – if you want to get really fancy, you can even test other things – not just the basic commands. For example, when I went to the Richard Curtis workshop at Camp Tailwaggers back in April, Richard got us all to try our dance moves and tricks with our humans facing away from us! ‘Coz us dancing doggies have to learn to follow a command, no matter what our humans are doing and which way they are facing, in the routine. It’s no good if they always have to stand a certain way and give a certain hand signal to make us do a trick – how can they dance then? Unlike other dog sports, like Obedience, us dancing doggies cannot rely on a set pattern of signals and body positions – we have to really know our commands and be able to do them in all sorts of positions, situations and distractions!

Here is the movie of me & Hsin-Yi trying it out: (note: here I had to follow commands not only with Hsin-Yi facing away – but also in a strange place with lots of strange doggies around – that’s like 3 extra challenges! )

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OK – Your turn now! Go on! Give it a try! It’s just a bit of fun. And if you can, make a movie of it and put it on your blog! (Or if you haven’t got a blog, put it on YouTube and leave me a comment with a link to your movie!) I’m sure we’d all love to see each other try this – so what are you waiting for?