Interesting Article Saying "Train Your Dog Less"

[Camilla and Darwin]

DH sent me a link to this today (no doubt to justify our lack of training with Darwin recently LOL) 

 

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/training-your-dog/

 

I realize it isn't the most scientific or official article ever, just thought it was an interesting idea. What do you think?

[Traci -Bexter & Maggie]

Sounds good to me!  Maybe teachers can convince the government we can do the same thing with our students?  I could go for only working a couple of days a week for short periods of time!

[Adina P]

You can definitely overdrill things so they become meaningless to a dog.  But I suppose it depends on your training goals.  Part of the role of training is to learn to work for reasonable periods of time.  So a dog that can only stand working for 5 minutes at a time before being released to play or relax, may not do very well in real life settings or under stress.  So I think there is merit to shortening some training times and merit to keeping some training times longer...depending on the dog, the overall goal, as well as where one is in training that particular dog.  For example, let's say your dog already knows how to heel well and is reliable but you're trying to perfect his heel so it is more precise.  In such a case, I would say definitely aim for shorter.  Get a bit of perfect heeling, praise, quit heeling for the day...you might be able to move on to something else like sit stays or stand stays...but don't keep drilling the same thing your dog JUST did really well or he could very likely get confused and wonder "um...didn't I JUST do that right?..why are we still doing this?  Maybe I need to do it differently?"  That is a bit anthropomorphic, but you get the idea.  Either that or the dog will simply get bored and sick of the same thing over and over X10 and deteriorate in his performance.

[Carol and Banjo]

This is interesting Camilla....I don't know anything about neurons in the brain but  I can't help but think that maybe as a society we are a bit obsessed with "training" .....of our dogs, our kids, and even ourselves.    There was a time when kids could just be kids......and dogs could just be dogs.    As a kid (many, many years ago!!!) we had dogs....and I don't ever remember my parents (or my siblings for that matter) training our dogs.   They were just part of the family.   Of course, in those days our dogs were allowed outside whenever they wanted to go out....they roamed the neighborhood along with the other neighborhood dogs, and came home when they were hungry or just wanted to come home.    Come to think of it.....I don't think we even had a leash for the dog!      I'm not advocating letting our dogs roam free....but maybe we've become a too "controlling" of our pets.     Just a thought.........

[Adina P]

I think we as a society don't train our dogs well enough.  Watch 100 people walking their dogs and 99 of them will have dogs at the end of the leash basically pulling them along.  Dogs are NOT better trained or more obedient now...it's just more popular to go to training classes now.  But obedience competition numbers have fallen from the past.  

[Adina P]

I also think there comes a point where you need to use it or lose it.  Also to train something to a reliable level takes a long time.  It's one thing to train a trick, another to train a dog to heel reliably on and off leash around tough distractions.  You just won't ever finish training if you don't take it out into the real world and train 'everywhere' and that can't happen when you train only twice weekly for 5-10 min at a time.

[Carol Brand]

Holy cow! The take away from this article is NOT to train your dog less. It is that fewer focused training sessions a week may actually facilitate learning.

I do take issue with the claim that results acquired training Beagles could be extrapolated to all dogs. Really? I don't think these researchers spend a lot of time outside the lab training different dogs. Beagles train much, much differently than say Goldens, which train differently from Poodles. One of the reasons Goldens are so popular with competitive Obedience folks is that you can train an exercise over and over to try to get something perfect and the dogs typically don't shut down. Do that with a Poodle or Border Collie and they will start mixing things up after the 3 go. It is as if they say to themselves, "Ok. I did this 3 times and she is having me do it again. Ergo (both Poodles and BCs speak Latin), she must want something other than what I am giving her."

As for training our dogs less and letting them just be dogs? I was on the losing end of that philosophy yesterday when an off leash Lab barreled up on my Mini poodle puppy and the 6 yr old girl who was walking her. I asked the Lab owner to call her dog which got me a snotty reply, "I am." This was followed by the usual, "Cooper, come." "Cooper, cooommme!" "Come on Cooper." "Cooper! Right now!" Followed by assurances that "He's friendly!" and "He wouldn't hurt a fly!" This while Cooper is starting to growl and giving my Standard Poodle the big old stink eye. My friend (mother of 6 yr old girl) who is NOT a dog person noted in her sweet voice, "Oh, so when he growls he is just saying I Love You."

GRRRRRRRRR.

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

When I was in China there were dogs every place but not one owner used a leash.  The dogs stayed right with the owner and would walk through traffic or crowds or come back from romping with just verbal commands.  It was something to see - I'd love to know how they did that but then again I saw mothers do a special whistle and a tiny baby (less than 3 months old) would be held over a gutter and it would pee.  They don't use diapers there.  So they train their children and their dogs - it was amazing.

[Melissa & Porter]

It was a little like that in Buenos Aires.  When I was there in January--the first time since I've been a dog owner--I noticed only about half the dogs were leashed.  The stayed close to their owners and did not cross a street unless told to.

I can see how this would work because from the day Porter came to us until he was 8 months old, we did not have a fence.  I don't like to advertise that as I know this'll seem crazy to most.  But I took him out without a leash on, gave him the "no" sound if he tried to leave our yard, treated him for listening (and peeing and pooping), let him play under supervision and then brought him in from 14 wks to 8 months.  I guess it kinda started because he was so timid anyway and there was snow piled up and he had the puppy zoomies.  I can count on one hand in those almost five months the number of times he went farther than the border of our yard or ignored me calling him back.  If we were going on a walk, I would leash him before we came in line with the back of the house or I would take him through the inside of the house.  I don't know if I would do this "training" again...well, actually because we have a fence, I know I wouldn't have to bother.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Very interesting! DH would love to hear this! I think they tune you out unless you switch it up all the time. Hard to say if this is true or not. We were told a dog is NEVER  done training so what's the difference on how often it's done if it's a forever thing? (just kidding)

[Adina P]

They tune you out if they know they can and there is no follow-through.  If I say 'sit' and my dog doesn't sit the first time and I don't follow through with a consequence (assuming they have had enough practice to understand) then they are merely being trained sit is meaningless and their response is not mandatory.  But dogs don't tune you out otherwise.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Adina, what kind of consequence would you give them? Sophie has started to test me with this... if I have a treat it's easy enough not to give it, but otherwise, I could wait all day when I want her so sit before we go in and out the front door. If I don't make her sit, she will bolt out the door before me. I have to lean down and press down on her bum and she will often just spring right back up...

[Traci -Bexter & Maggie]

Sophie sounds like Bexter!  I know he knows what sit means.  When we worked on it outside, he just looks at me.  I have to push his butt down & he comes right back up just like Sophie.  Adina, I am also interested in the "consequence."  I have heard of "collar pops???"  What does that mean exactly?  Is that what you're talking about?