Why dog training is like dieting......

For me the easiest way to diet is to never give myself the opportunity to mess up. Willpower is nonexistent - if there is ice cream in the freezer then it is gonna get eaten. If I buy foods sure to tempt me I buy them in individual portions - and contrary to what I tell myself late at night, a PINT of Ben & Jerry's ice cream is not a single serving.... This technique seems to work for me, although it is much easier here in MS than it was in VT where every corner store and gas station would sell things like these:

World's Best Brownies!

In dog training I have found self policing to work in a similar manner. If I am not careful I can overdo my training; especially when I feel like I am making progress on something new or when I have struggled with something and found a solution.  I have high drive eager dogs who love to train but I still want to quit when they are still in drive and loving their work. Training too long can take some of the joy out of the task and it starts to seem like work rather than fun. Even for the "serious" tasks like search and rescue or police work I want it all to be fun to the dog - something that I allow them to do as an outlet for the drives that they have in them genetically.

One way I have found to avoid that common pitfall of overtraining is to ration  my rewards and go out to train with a predetermined amount. For example, lately I have been tweaking Jill's heeling and I use a combination of small food rewards and her beloved tennis ball to shape the specific behavior I want.  I want something animated and strong so I need to keep the sessions short. Jill LOVES to heel and I am very pleased with the progress we are making. So it would be easy for both of us to overdo it. The solution to keep me "honest": take out a predetermined number of rewards and end the training session when I run out of rewards!

 


Natural Balance Roll ~ aka "doggie crack" ~ enough for 15 reps.



 ....AND SOME HAPPY HEELING!!