[NAGDU] Using positive reinforcement instead of punishment

[Dan Weiner]

very interesting, I honestly have never found that, right out of the box 
so to speak, the dogs do well with overheads, it takes a lot of 
reinforcement and consistency, even then I'm not convinced that dogs are 
able to look up when they're looking forward, right and left--smile. I'm 
tall enough, six four, 193 cm, and even if my dog does it well, sooner 
or later something will happen--smile. All of my dogs did great at it 
in  familiar environments where they were expecting overheads that they 
were used to, but in unfamiliar areas it could be a problem.  Yes, 
tapping or showing the dog  the object, maybe shaking it a bit if you 
won't hurt yourself   is  fine.  But I just warn you, in my opinion, 
sooner or later you will hit something from overhead.

On the thee hand, I can tell you a story--smile. you were afraid of 
that, weren't you.

When I was taking a summer course at Middle bury college I stayed in the 
dorm and there was a staircase which would be partially in the way of my 
face--smile. when I walked with Evan, dog at the time he always took me 
around it. but one day there was going to be a loud party  with dancing 
and I left Evan to sleep in my room and sallied forth with the 
cane....well not knowing that that particular staircase would indeed 
cause resistance to my head if passed--smile I banged right in to 
it...Evan had always taken me around it...that definitely woke me up. 
The moral of the story is, I bet for every misjudgement our dogs make 
even with overheads that there are plenty of things they are keeping ous 
safe from.


Dan the man with Parker the hound



On 1/21/2018 2:49 PM, Bianka via NAGDU wrote:
> Hi Jiska and all,
>
> My current school does not usually teach to rework a situation like this but I know it from my previous school and have used it with all my dogs. Personally, I found that leash corrections are not the right way to handle these kinds of situations. I feel asking the dog to stop, turn around and rework the situation is disrupting the flow in such a way that usually the dog will be motivated to do it right next time. Now, if I see the same mistake a second time I usually drop the harness handle and show my dog the overhead obstacle or the curb he/she missed if it‘s safe, that will usually do the trick. Even with my black lab who was sometimes hard to motivate a leash correction would only shut her down in those situations.
>
> As for the clicker, I have conditioned a praise word and I do use treats if I know it will help my dog stay on track. I find the clicker very helpful in training really specific behaviors but you have to be very careful as to the timing of the click. On route I use a conditioned marker word and treats. As for a no reward marker, I think it‘s a question of attitude. Dogs are very good pattern matchers. So you could either use a non-reward marker or just use a command to tell the dog what he/she should do. In fact, my school teaches a non-reward marker or verbal correction has always to be followed by the thing we want our dog to do in that particular moment.
>
> Just my two cents, hth,
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Bianka
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> NAGDU mailing list
> NAGDU at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NAGDU:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/dcwein%40dcwein.cnc.net
>
>