Why Dog Training is like the Holidays....

I was tempted to slack off in the hotel room tonight and use "traveling" as an excuse not to do a blog post. However since that excuse could apply to most of 2013 it is probably not a good enough reason to goof off...

I just spent the past two weeks visiting my family in Vermont. I traveled with 4 dogs. They travel well and are well behaved however in exchange for hanging out quietly in my mom's guest room they expected to be suitably exercised. On one of our many walks around the neighborhood I was discussing with my brother how when we all return home for the holidays we all fall back basically in our old patterns of behavior. Without thinking, we respond to other people's behavior the same way that we always have, no matter how old we are. I was thinking about this similarity to dog training because one of my dogs is a relatively young dog, full of energy. Each time the pup came back into house from outside he proceeded to try to run amuck in the distinctly NOT puppy proofed house. Each time I would attempt to do damage control and stop him from jumping on people, on the dining room table, ravaging the gifts under the tree etc.  My training approach was reactive and just made him more determined and frustrated. After a few periods of this I changed my approach to being proactive - by reminding him that I had a treat and was not afraid to use it before we went through the door I was better able to keep his attention and prompt him for focus on me and a sit. After a while I could fade the initial lure and also get him back more easily when he proceeded to try to run amuck. All too often, especially when working on behavioral problems (in dogs of course....), I see people trying to fix a problem with a reactive solution rather than the much more effective proactive solution. So many behaviors (again, in dogs of course) happen repeatedly and are very predictable - yet we respond each time as if the behavior is totally new, with no plan other than to make some feeble attempt to make it stop.

Eleven years can pass in the blink of an eye..... Be Proactive rather than Reactive....