I recently finished reading, “Bonding with Your Dog: A Trainer’s Secrets for Building a Better Relationship” by Victoria Schade.
I’ve been feeling like Delilah and I are not bonded, hence her tendency to ignore me on off-leash hikes. As with any thought I have, it could of course be wrong. But I’m going with it for the sake of this post.
This book was suggested to me by Pamela, at Something Wagging in one of my comments a while back. I downloaded the book on my Kindle and then took my time reading it.
Why? Well two reasons really.
1) When I read a training book, I want to take notes. I want to highlight areas of interest and I find that I don’t do that with my Kindle.
My bad.
Yes I know it’s easily rectified with the highlighting option on the Kindle, but then there’s the pesky matter of trying to find it.
2) Most dog training books I’ve read give LOTS of stories, emphasizing the lesson.
I want the lesson.
Quick and dirty. Give me the story later. I’m trying to bond with my dog here. :-0
Don’t get me wrong, it was a good book, BUT I got so caught up in the stories that I sometimes forgot the lesson.
Ok, maybe it’s just me and my menopausal mind.
ANYHOOO, I’m not going to give you all her tips here (that would spoil the book for you) but I will say one of her suggestions was talking to your dog while walking. After reading the book I realized, I already do that and quite frequently.
I also realized I could be sending Delilah mixed messages.
Delilah’s command for returning to me is HERE. Sampson’s is COME. Don’t ask me why because I couldn’t tell you if I had to.
Since I talk to them while we’re walking I noticed I say Come on, Over Here, and This Way when we’re walking. So how is Delilah supposed to know when I say Here that it means, get your butt back pronto?
As humans we are capable of understanding how words are used in different contexts, but dogs aren’t. They haven’t as yet developed that skill….notice my use of the word yet. (I have high hopes for my dogs.)
I started working on a new command with Delilah. When we’re walking and I see her turn and look at me, or she starts running toward me I sing (and yes, it really sounds like I’m singing) Check In. As soon as she reaches me I give her a treat and tell her good check in.
Once she’s checked in, I can very easily (and sometimes do) give her another command, or play a quick game of kibble catch.
For Delilah the only thing Check In means is she is getting a treat. That’s it.
So many times with our dogs we will call them to us, and clip a leash on them or something else that in their eyes equates to my fun is done. Why would a dog like Delilah want to return to someone who’s putting the kibash on her fun?
Yeah, I don’t know either.
Oh, you just want to give me a treat? Sure I’ll take it.
Interesting. I have not heard of the Check In command but it makes sense.
I haven’t heard of the Check In command either. I’ll try that on the tall person when he wanders off to take photos 🙂
I hope your new command will work for you. I bet Delilah understands a lot more than you realize…lol. I think she is one smart doggie.
I talk to my dogs all the time. Sometimes I think I must talk their ears off. I asked them about it and they said it was all good.
Check in! Great idea. I’m sure they CAN learn that Come means one thing, Here means another; the challenge would be making sure the human has it straight!
I am so glad the book helped! When I started thinking about recalls as representative of my bond with my dog, it forced me to re-evaluate my approach. Like you, I decided to change the word I was using as mine had been “poisoned” by so much ignored use. These days, I mostly just use her name to get her attention. As soon as she looks at me, I use a verbal marker “good”, which signals that a treat is on it’s way. As long as I can get her to look at me, I can get her to return. It’s not perfect but we’re getting there!
I hope you and Delilah continue to have success!
Hi Jodi,
That sounds like a great new plan – I think Delilah is training you well!! Tee Hee – Now I just need to get my Mum to give me more treats……hmmmm?
My Mum talks to me all the time, but I just zone out – Dad taught me!! 🙂 I’m thinking about getting some headphones! 🙂
Have fun,
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
I talk to Mazzie all of the time when we’re on walks and I think it has helped tremendously in terms of her level of engagement with me. You’re so good to plow through the training books in such detail and to be able to incorporate that info into your work with Delilah.
While I’ve read quite a few training books, I learned the most by working hands on with a behaviorist for a few sessions. In fact, after the first session I was shocked (and pretty upset) about how much I was doing wrong. And I really thought that I was applying all of the lesson and techniques that I had read about pretty well. Apparently I’m one of those people that has to learn by doing!
That being said, I still read training books because I find the different philosophies and techniques fascinating and just overall like learning anything and everything I can about dog behavior.
Hey Sampson, Hey Delilah, Jet here. Hi Miss Jodi.
Mom asked me to share that you’ve made an excellent point. Mom talks to us a bunch on our walks. Lately, she’s spoken less than usual… I think she’s had lots on her mind. Anyway, she learned about words with Koko. She tried down for lay down and then realized she also said down when my sister counter-surfed. Ahhhh… when the light bulb went on, she changed the counter-surf to off and things improved.
So glad to hear you got some good insights from the Schade book, even if you did get distracted by the stories. 🙂
BTW, did you ever think of offering your writing talents to create “study guides” to accompany dog training books? You could distill the instructions without the stories. I think that would be a great service.
One bit of advice from the book that was a big fail for me was chasing squirrels with your dog. Maybe it works better in the country. But in the city where I live, it’s a recipe for disaster. 🙂
I’m definitely keen to read this book. Please let us know if you think the tips recommended help with Delilah’s recall!