Revelations on training

Mom here for this post. I need to document some things that have happened with the training of Maverick and Bella is still sleeping.

Maverick is a smart dog. I knew that after just a day or two. He is extremely intelligent and a very quick learner. We started training classes 3 weeks ago and Maverick has mastered everything I've asked of him and more. But what I want to talk about is me, not Maverick.

I've heard for years that dog training is really to train the owners, not the dog. And while I understood that and could even see it in other people, I apparently never applied it to me. I have trained all my dogs to do things, but apparently, I was doing things without really considering it. Let me explain.

In the past, when I 'train' a dog to do something, I expect them to get it. I expect them to learn it after a few times and to perfect it after some practice. Now the amount of time and practice depended on the dog and the action. And my patience was directly related to that perceived time frame in my mind. Some dogs catch on immediately and don't need a lot of reinforcing. Others take a long time to catch on. And some are stubborn, have a mind of their own, don't understand the why, etc. And logically I get that. But after doing the same thing for days or weeks and the dog still is not perfect at it, I would get frustrated and angry, the dog would get confused and things would regress and generally I'd give up. Luckily most of my dogs have been pretty smart and they learned things in spite of me.

Then along came Bella. Bella kind of changed my way of thinking and training. She was such a sweet, gentle dog that only wanted to please her humans. I could never get mad at her. And I started training her by shaping without even realizing it. I wanted her to look at me when I called her name, so everytime she looked at me I would say her name. To this day, if I say 'Bella' she looks right into my eyes. There were other things I did too, that at the time didn't occur that I was using the shaping method. But it worked with her because she was so sweet and gentle and wanted to make us happy.
I tried to use this method on Axl, but he was so over the top reactive it didn't work. Then I would get frustrated, he would get scared, and things would deteriorate quickly. I feel really bad now and hope he knows that I was trying my best with him.

Fast forward to Maverick. Maverick has some little issues, barks at some other dogs, pulls on the leash, etc. Nothing super serious. Also, his barking is generally not aggression but excitement. But Maverick is also super, super smart. I don't think I've ever had a dog this smart. But let me continue. So we started training with him 3 weeks ago. Since we got him, we've done the simple things; sit, down, wait, things like that. But as usual, I started trying to make him be perfect and that was not working. The training we are doing is very positive based and I think that helped me see what I was doing wrong. In the past, in my mind, there was always a separation between 'training' and 'not training'. Some walks were specifically for training, while other walks were just for fun. The other day I realized that the dog does not know the difference. To the dog, every walk is just a walk. Sometimes I let him get away with crazy stuff and sometimes I don't. That must be seriously confusing to the dog. So I started taking treats with me on every walk and working on things every walk. It has made a huge, huge difference. I reward when he is walking and doing things I want him to do. When he is not, no rewards. And Maverick is learning that if he walks nicely beside me, he gets treats, but if he pulls he gets nothing. It's freaking working. I'm remaining a lot calmer through the whole process because I'm not expecting him to be perfect, I'm just watching for when he's doing things right and rewarding them. OMG!!! I feel like I'm a little slow in this whole process. On dog #8 I figure this out. UGH!!!!

Another thing that I struggled with is the whole treat thing. They say to treat like crazy when they are learning and then gradually reduce the treats and eventually remove them. For some reason, I thought this was a quick process. I thought okay, I'll treat today but then tomorrow start removing them. I realize now that's ridiculous. You treat until the action is almost automatic. Until the dog almost has no other choice but to do that action when he hears that word. That may take days or weeks or months, but it will come. I realize now that I was very impatient and wanted things to be done NOW!! I also did not want to put in the level of work required to reach a state of training like I wanted. Now that is really ridiculous. How can I expect to have a dog that does X Y Z if I don't train them to do X Y Z? So yeah, I think I have finally figured it out. Now I just need to remember this and continue to apply it as we go. Because I know there will be hiccups in the road and I know that it will take calm, confident work on my part to get him through it. Luckily I have a super smart dog.

So yesterday at training, Maverick was throwing things at me to get treats. He would do things when I hadn't asked for them and then expect a treat for them. It was interesting to watch. He would sit and wait for a treat. When nothing came, he would climb on the platform and sit, expecting a treat. It was really funny to watch. He wanted a treat and he was going to do whatever it took to get one. Such a smart freaking dog. ......