I’ve become determined to work with Delilah on her down stays.
It’s not an easy task.
Since she likes to be in the bathroom with me I figure it’s win-win. She gets to be in the bathroom with me and I get to work on her downs. The trouble with this is, she doesn’t always stay in the down.
I thought well maybe the floor (being ceramic and all) is too cold and she’s uncomfortable, so I took the bathroom rug and threw it down. She still got up.
Listen to your readers.
A couple of posts ago Jan said, “Some of the best advice I ever got was not to try to treat my kids or my dogs the same way. They are all different entities, with different needs and all of them have let me know what kind of attention they want from me.
It was hard to do but I finally learned not to reward bad behavior by giving that kid or dog more attention. Praise the good one and the other will want to copy that behavior.”
This comment really got me thinking. When I’m in the bathroom and I put Delilah into a down stay and she gets up. What do I do? I go back and put her in a down stay again.
I asked myself, “What does this teach her?”
I answered, “It teaches her that when she doesn’t do as I ask, I reward her with more attention.”
Jodi Stone, you are a bad dog trainer!
Look, I don’t want to scare you or force you to burn your retinas out with bleach so try not to visualize this too much. Today I got out of the shower, dried myself off and applied my lotion.
While I was waiting for my lotion to dry, I decided to blow dry my hair. Since I have short, fine hair I throw a little product in there, bend over and blow it upside down.
As I’m bent over in this upside down position with my hair dryer in my hands, who comes shoving her way through my legs.
Yup.
First I laughed, because I’m dumb and can’t help myself but then I took the rug and put it on the floor and said, “Down.”
She sat on the rug.
I didn’t battle with her at all, I took her by the collar, led her out into the bedroom and shut her out of the bathroom.
Seeing as this is DELILAH we are writing about, I need to make sure there is nothing lying about that she will decide to chew up or I will need to make sure the bedroom door is shut before I banish her.
Negative Punishment.
I’ve been using this technique for a couple of weeks in a number of different ways.
When she does not sit while I am preparing her meals, I stop what I am doing and wait. My motto is “Nothing moves in the kitchen if you’re moving.”
When we are eating dinner and she is supposed to be in a down on her place and she gets up, she goes in her crate.
Last night we were watching TV and eating our dinner, it was a pretty intense show and we were both fixated on the TV. I caught movement and realized she’d gotten up and gone over to inspect her bowl.
FAIL.
In the crate she went.
Get excited about this.
Let your mind soar as you think of the possibilities.
Dog doesn’t respond to recall = Dog stays on leash.
Child doesn’t clean room = Child doesn’t go to birthday party.
Husband doesn’t mow lawn = Wife doesn’t,,,,,,,,,,,
buy beer.
Where did you think I was going with that?
Book Update: I haven’t updated you about my book in a while. Truthfully, I wrote a really exciting part of the book and then I didn’t know what to do next, so I put it down for a while. But I’ve picked it back up and my book now has 25,051 words.
Wonderful post. I absolutely agree about the ‘what are you teaching her’ with more attention. Lulu does not like to down at all, I think because it is to vulnerable. So I try to be careful where I ask her to do it. Sometimes, not buying beer is the only resort.
Thank you. I’m not sure I realized what I was doing, but now that I have I’m out to rectify the situation. So you struggle with Lulu too? I’m sorry to hear that. I know Delilah can do the down, she is just fussy about it. 🙂
Yes sometimes no beer is the best way to go. 😉
What a great post Jodi. I can just imagine the bathroom scene (well not too much…lol). I have to admit that sometimes my dogs do something wrong, but it is so silly, I have to turn away so the dog, yes the dog, won’t see me laughing. Storm does it to me all of the time.
So did you ever get my video to play? I just cannot figure out why it does that sometimes.
LOL I thought it was pretty funny, considering my position. 🙂 There are many times the dogs do something and I look at Hubby and we both burst out laughing.
Yes, I got the video to play from my home computer and left you another comment. Sometimes my work computer acts up. I’m glad you reminded me, cause I just popped over and watched it!
Well now I did not think to check a different browser. I see that in IE videos just don’t place correctly, (which I now remember is why I switched to Firefox…CRS…lol). Not saying that was your problem, but there have been others who can’t get vids to work, so I will keep the IE issue in mind. Thanks for trying again Jodi!
Now that you mention it I use Firefox at home and I have both browsers at work so I could have been using IE.
I’ve found when loading videos only the link shows in IE but a picture shows in Firefox (which is why I switched at home.) 🙂
I love this post Jodi! It made me laugh and I can so relate to this with my current Leroy situation!
I have to try the withhold from buying beer for the husband thing! this could come in handy for future things, or it could totally backfire on me:)
Thank you, quite honestly I’m grateful that she isn’t as big as Leroy because I can only imagine the outcome had a dog that large shoved himself between my legs. 🙂 Try the beer thing, unless there’s something else that is equally as motivating for him. 🙂
I used to do both positive and negative type training with Georgia, depending on the situation. I don’t have to do much training anymore because [miraculously], she’s become a rather well behaved dog 🙂
That bathroom scene is seared into my brain. I think I will always think of you like this from now on.
LOL sorry, that was not my intention! But I had to sort of ‘set the stage.’
How did you get her to behave? Although I suppose the day Delilah behaves I will no longer have anything to write about.:-)
Really nice post, this “more attention” is perhaps why dogs would do something with one of the members of the house and not with the other, probably because we react and reinforce (or not) that behavior in a totally different way.
Exactly, and I think it works the same way with kids. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Your bathroom seems like a great training venue…or at least a comedy venue.
LOL Jan, I think me training is more the comedy venue than anything else. 🙂
Hi Jodi,
My Mum has all the best intentions when it comes to my training, but I know that I can make her laugh too easily and it all gets forgotten!! 🙂
We’ve got a good understanding of when I need to behave though and most of the time I’m no trouble at all, well, that’s how I see it!! 🙂
Good luck with Delilah and also with the rest of your book, it sounds exciting!! 🙂
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
I think Negative Punishment is an essential part of any complete training plan. Time outs helped us tremendously when Hurley was a young pup and I remove my attention, treats, whatnot all the time when any of the dogs aren’t behaving. It’s a great compliment to rewarding for good behavior.
Good job on figuring out what is rewarding to Delilah in order to adjust the methods you use when training. I am guilty of much the same sometimes, even the times I do know better. But the more clear we are on our criteria, the easier it will be for them to understand what we expect of them.
Most of these are very good action-consequence ideas but from a male point of view, the lawn mowing thing seems a little harsh.
i’m just glad she didn’t talk about “tucking” my dad into bed! it took me 20 years to catch that innuendo though lol
This is such a great post! Love the part where she came tearing through your legs– definitely something Scarlett would do, too 🙂 Good luck with your book and of course training Delilah. Have a great weekend!!
So glad you didn’t include pictures, Jodi. I’m sure the adult content filters would have prevented your blog from coming up in my feed. 🙂
It took me a while to realize that I rewarded Honey more for the “release” from stay than I did for the stay itself. Now, while she’s lying on her pillow while I’m cooking dinner, I randomly toss her little bits of carrot or cheese but only if she stays. The treats stop if she gets up. It keeps me on the positive reinforcement thing and it makes her a very fast learner.
And tossing an occasionally piece of cheese doesn’t take too much energy when I’m already cooking.
Look forward to hearing if you see improvements with Delilah.
Hi Y’all,
How y’all doin’? Just stopped by for a visit. Catchin’ up on my readin’ don’t you know.
BOL!!! My Human does the “nothing moves if your barking” that is really upsetting when I want my food!
Hope y’all had a great weekend!
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog