The Learning Curve

The Leaning Curve

When someone calls to have their dog trained, they do so by first telling me what behaviors they seek to stop. Then, they tell me all the things the dog does well.
This a normal response. Owners don’t want people think their dog is bad, just that there are a few things that need to be cleared up to make living with them a pleasure.

Typically, the jumping, barking, biting, pulling, running away or not coming when called
are the main “BAD” things owners seek to stop.
The good things usually are the dog is house trained, very loving, isn’t destructive, good with the kids or doesn’t do one of the afore mentioned “bad” things.
So it would seem that when the dog is bad, it really bad and when good, really good!

So which is it?
Is the dog good or bad?

Actually, they are neither!

I never look at a dog as being good or bad.
I see them a series of learned behaviors.

Anything a dog does was learned in some manner.
What they learn may not be what the owner hopes they will learn, but in the learning curve; the owner has given credence to what the dog ultimately does.

You call your dog! Easy enough to understand what the end result should be, the dog comes to you!
But in the learning curve, you may have called your dog, it didn’t come, so you went to them.
At some point your dog also learns were the end of you arm is and how to stay just outside of your reach to not be caught.
Now the game is a foot as they say.
“Come” now means, run away as fast as you can and what was a simple command morphs into a game of catch me - catch me.
They are having fun running around and think you must be as well, since you keep playing along by chasing them!

The intended course of action was to teach the dog to come but the learning curve became run away.
Your dog isn’t being a bad dog, rather, a very smart dog since they learned exactly what you taught them!

When your dog pulls on a leash, a cause and effect reaction sets in. They pull away from you, you pull them back and they in turn pull away.
Some people compensate for this by keeping the leash short, holding the dog next to them. The dog hasn’t learned not pull but when to pull.
The dog doesn’t have any idea where they should be walking because they continually rely upon leash pressure to indicate action.
The learning curve is, I will pull until you indicate doing something else by your pulling me.
If the leash were taken completely out of the picture, where would your dog end up?
All dogs should learn to walk as thought there is no leash connected to them.

Training is not about correction but about a teaching process that informs the dog of the full context and positional placement of each command.
If the learning curve is clear, simple and concise, the end result will be a well trained dog.

Jeanne Perciaccanto has been a professional dog trainer for 30 years. She has training and behavioral article translated into over 10 languages around the world. Ultimate Dog Training
Offers obedience-behavioral-social dog services.
www.ultimatedogtraining.com