2008-07-19
Dog Training
On the review of a co-worker, I watch America's Greatest Dog tonight. Coincidentally, it was on at the same time Wendy and I had obedience class. Having recently headed down the path of training a dog I found this show to be REALLY frustrating.
There are a few people, and their canine counterparts, that are really good; they are positive and do the things that our wonderful instructors taught us. Then there are the others ... what a mess! These people/dog pairs must have been chosen strictly for the amount of drama that they could inflict. The Barbie-dogs and the annoying scolder ... just terrible! Constantly yelling at the dogs, dressing them up in stupid clothes, all completely over the top. The "child replacers" seem to have a lot of problems with their dogs. The people that treat their dogs as friends and companions seem to end up with a much better dog in the long run.
It is really hard to positively train a dog. There are times that you want to scream and hit walls, but you really can't. In just five weeks Wendy has learned to (mostly) walk on a leash in a heel, sit, down, stay, release, come (usually), bow, and crawl. She also worked on some agility obstacles: the tunnel and the tire (jumping through a hoop). All of this has been through positive reinforcement.
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