[nagdu] how dogs learn

Tami Jarvis tami at poodlemutt.com
Thu Aug 29 15:14:27 UTC 2013


Julie,

Interesting observations. I think you're right. Mitzi is definitely a 
visual learner and much prefers planning routes to just going where I 
tell her to go when it's time to make a turn. She's kinda extreme, in 
that she can look out a 2nd story window and figure out where things are 
on the grounds below and how to get there. She's done it a couple of 
times, or looked off a stair landing and known where a landmark like 
"the desk" is for a find. I do not believe dogs can do that, but when I 
experiment with it, she's really consistent.

So with sniffing. Life is easier if I give her sniff time, which I've 
heard can be the case with poodles. Sniff breaks are also a good working 
break, like a coffee and cigarette break for humans. She picks up a lot 
with passing sniffs, too. When we go on a route for a sniff 'n stroll 
after having worked it, she seems to have a list of places for thorough 
sniffing and is quite busy going from one to the other. Cracks me up.

I've never figured out exactly how she conducts a "find human X" in a 
large store. It seems to be a combination of sight and smell and maybe 
sound... When DD is wandering about shopping and taking his time, it can 
be interesting to go get ourselves lost, then put her on find and see 
what happens and try to figure out how she is doing it.

She will also "wrangle a human," which means find a store clerk. I don't 
know how that works, either. She can pick out clerks from customers 
apparently. She uses the same technique I've always used once one is 
found but is busy with another customer. Strange. And how does she know? 
I once absent-mindedly ask her where the computers were, and she took me 
to them in a huge sprawling store the first time we were there. Then she 
wrangled a human and we trailed at a polite distance until he was free.

So fitting in her sniffing and staring needs can be a PITA on hectic 
days, but she picks up a heck of a lot of info apparently. Some days I 
need to put in more effort than I like dealing with unapproved random 
sniffing as a result. She's funny, though. She only goes nuts that way 
when there's nothing for me to run into or trip over... It's still 
annoying, but then when we get to a tricky spot she's all business. She 
is a very strange critter.

Jetta does sound like a smart one! Boy, are you in trouble. /lol/

Tami

On 08/29/2013 07:03 AM, Julie J. wrote:
> I was talking to Kiddo the other day and the topic of how dogs learn came up.  It is well established that people have a preferred learning method, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, maybe there’s more, but those are the modes that come to mind.  Anyway we were talking about Jetta and how she was most definitely a visual learner.  When she sees something she’s not sure about, she likes to plop her behind into a sit and look at the new thing until it makes sense to her.  Monty learns visually, but I think he’s more a kinesthetic learner.  He’s a moving and doing sort of dog, so it makes sense.   I also think dogs learn a lot by scent.  Generally though sniffing things is discouraged by guide dogs.  So I got to thinking...do you think discouraging sniffing, especially among puppies during the early socialization time, inhibits their ability to learn about the world around them?     Do you think disallowing all sniffing all the time can cause frustration or other problems in an adu
lt guide dog?  Or do you think dogs even have preferred modes of learning like people do?  Could scent be one of these?
>
> Curiously,
> Julie
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