Smokey.
Smokey is a 17-week-old mini Aussie who’s board-and-training with us. Her daring enthusiasm is matched by her persistence to get what she wants. This is the kind of pup we love at Outsmarting Dogs. (OK, we love all pups.) With our delicious and motivating training food and solid training plans, she is fast on her way to being a bright star.
Smokey’s favorite non-food reinforcement is our recent staff-and-family addition, beautiful Emilie the Dobermann. Smokey loves to play chase with Emilie.
Emilie.
We adopted Emilie from a shelter four months ago. We’ve been working with her on behaviors typical of our pet dogs. Sit, down, stay, housetraining, retrieving, and come when called. Emilie, too, loves to play chase with Smokey.
Rules of the game.
Here’s the rule that Emilie and Smokey arrived at for playing chase. (Dogs with good dog-dog play skills are smart that way.) Smokey is always the chaser and Emilie is the chased. Emilie is too fast and powerful to chase Smokey. But Emilie is also too fast for Smokey to keep pace with. So what she does to keep Smokey in the game is to slow down now and then, even stop to see if Smokey’s coming. Emilie will also change directions and pass Smokey coming the other way or take off in a new direction to keep it interesting and fair for Smokey.
Self-Handicapping.
When a bigger/stronger dog creates a more even playing field while playing with a smaller/weaker dog we call the behavior self-handicapping. Not all dogs are self-handicappers, so be particular and careful with which dogs you let your smaller dog or puppy play.
Proof.
Smokey and Emilie love to play the chase game with each other. Take a look at the two of them and particularly Emilie demonstrating self-handicapping.
The game is reinforcing for the both of them. When something’s reinforcing, we want to do it again.
Motivation is all that.
This brings us to the point of how well reinforcement works. An animal always works to get what she wants. Or doesn’t want. Motivation is the guiding force of dog training. No motivation, no behavior building or behavior change. Motivation is behind these two photos.
The usual.
Our routine in the mornig has been Smokey stays in a portion of the back yard that’s fenced off with 3-foot high ex-pens. Smokey pees, poops, and sniffs, while I water the plants nearby. The grown-up dogs, including Emilie, are in the yard taking care of their business. Then we all go inside for training, breakfast, and shortly after, another outing where Smokey joins the big dogs for playtime.
The motivation for escape.
What happened this time was first thing in the morning, Smokey wanted to skip right to the playing. I put her in her penned-in space, I came back inside to get my cell phone, and as I walked by the window, I saw Smokey teetering on top of the ex-pen. Not for long, though. By the time I grabbed my phone and was running toward the front door, she was pushing off the ex-pen and zooming to the front yard, in search or her BFF, Emilie. I ran out the front door to see Smokey greeting Emilie under the bottle brush tree. The two were just about to start the chase-me game.
What I knew
I knew getting away with the escape and playing with Emilie would be so hugely reinforcing that Smokey would be much harder to stop after getting her way this time. I also knew that there was no way Smokey would come if I called her at this point. She was not ready to respond to a recall cue through this big of a distraction, a distraction she set up herself. So it was going to be up to Emilie to come when called.
Emilie saves the training.
I had practiced tons of recalls with Emilie since I adopted her. Even after she eliminated outdoors, I was still watching her zoom over to me for the reward for a job well done. So I may have bellowed a little louder and a little stronger, but I cued Emilie to come to me. I wanted her to forgo the play before it started, and I did add a little incentive by sticking my hand in my bait bag. Hey, I wanted to win and was going to pull out all my resources.
Score!
I did win. I’m still celebrating. Emilie stopped right at the start of the ring-around-the-bush game, looked at me, and made the right decision. She ran over to me. And guess who followed! Yes, it was a change in the routine of their game. Smokey was following Emilie, aka Smokey’s reinforcement. (Reinforcement can come from anywhere, though it’s best when training a dog to have control of the reinforcement.) Right when the fuzzy pup came near me, I scooped her up.
Hide your funny bone.
As much as I laughed inside at Smokey’s antics, I was not going to let her know I found her behavior amusing. I could laugh, tell the story, and write about it later. Now it was down to business. No emotion. Just “Too bad!” Smokey made the wrong decision, and a timeout was what she earned for it. Not a romp around the yard with Emilie. But Smokey and Emilie did get their usual romping time later in the day.
Dogs are full of behavior, and with the right reinforcement, they’ll prove it to you.
Find out how much fun it is to train with food and games and our cast of characters. Become a client of Outsmarting Dogs! We never use pain to train. We outsmart dogs instead!
Helen Verte Schwarzmann
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Certified in Training and Counseling
Certified Pet Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed
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AKC Canine Good Citizen/CGC and STAR Puppy Trainer and Evaluator
Your Board-and-Train Dog Trainer for Fort Myers, Lee county, Naples, Collier county, and southwest Florida
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