Category: Advanced Stuff, Common Problems ¤
  Author: Victoria Farrington ¤
   Title: Leaving Yucky Stuff (i.e. Making Better Choices) ¤

	I must admit I doddered on for some time without really 
understanding the beauty of the dog making choices until I read something 
by Morgan Spector in which he wrote of reinforcement history.  It was a 
big brain-thwacking AHA because the following was going on at the time:

	My dogs are greedy and opportunistic and I take them hiking and 
to parks where a lot of nasty food like chicken bones lie around on the 
ground.  I wanted to teach them to spurn available food.  Telling them NO 
didn't really work because they're fast, their faces were right down 
there with the food and 1 ate a rock once just because I was coming to 
take it away from her.
	SO I started over again.  I put yucky food like potato peels or 
uncooked pasta on the floor.  As the dogs moved in, I said "here" which 
was a cue they knew in other circumstances.  (Later I decided the cue was 
stupid and dropped it, but this is how I began.)  And when I said "here" 
I put a target stick or my foot in front of the charging dog.  They were 
used to targeting my foot so they didn't see this as an aversive.  More 
often than not I actually bumped or poked them with my foot or target 
stick but contact with the target, however it happened, equalled click 
and wonderful food.   I increased the distance they had to come away from 
yucky food to touch the target, then we did this in  many other 
locations.  When I put food of more value on the floor, I started up 
close again.  During this time, yes, my dogs sometimes did choose to 
snatch 1 piece of cheese from the floor instead of coming away for 10.
	A friend was appalled by this.  Her own idea is that one must 
always stop a dog from making the wrong choice or the dog will always 
regard the wrong choice as an option.  My belief was that sheer 
repetition of getting better stuff for coming away would become both a 
habit and they could probably restrain themselves when what was available 
was pretty darn heavenly.  SHe told me it would NEVER work.
	Just to be annoying, she decided to prove her point before I 
considered myself finished with the training.  SHe put a cheese sandwich 
on the floor and walked away.  Shiva (AKA The Imp of Satan) gave us 
exactly 28 seconds before she snatched up that sandwich BUT as she was 
running off with it, I said "here" and she stopped, hesitated and slowly 
dropped it, watching me closely to see if I had something better.  I made 
a fist which held her attention, took the sandwich, whooped it up and 
gave her a big chunk of cheese.  (all cheese being preferable).  And to 
be fair, 28 seconds is a long time for Shiva to hesitate before snatching.
	With the other 2 dogs, it worked even better.  (We did this 1 dog 
at a time to avoid the "he did it" angle or competition which tends to 
send everything stomach-ward.)  These 2 are my sweet stoics.  Dash 
actually barked while sitting in front of the sandwich because no one was 
looking at him and he wanted us to SEE what a good boy he was.  Samson 
sniffed the sandwich, thought about it, then turned and gave a big paw 
thump to the nearest foot. It holds up even better in the real life 
situations for which it was intended--they turn and sometimes whoof when 
they come across chicken bones and old burgers, they have bulit in 
hesitation at every step and they seem to be just dying to hear me call 
them away.  As I said, I dropped the verbal cue so now they just turn 
when they find stuff and I inspect it.  True, they're not finding big 
hunks of rare sirloin but I didn't think they would.

	More to the point, when Vivian was having trouble with her pup 
not coming away from other dogs, I suggested she have the other dogs do a 
down if the pup ignored her.  The options then were "run to Mum" or hang 
around boring immobile dogs.  I'd seen my father do this with his setters 
but I'd never done it myself so I took my dogs to a friend's farm where 4 
out of 5 labs drop like stones.  Dash went tearing off toward his pals, I 
gave a recall cue, he glanced back (more "you've got to be kidding!" than 
any thought of responding, I imagine) and my friend downed her dogs.  
Poor Dash.  He couldn't understand it.  His pals were slabs of labs. (is 
it my breath?  Have I lost my charm?)  When they were clearly not going 
to fall for the sweet nothings he cooed in their ears (YAP,YAP, GET UP!), 
I called him again.  This time he came.  Sure, why not, nobody else wants 
me.  It was too good to be true because the labs were clicker trained as 
well: the same click that told Dash he was "doing the right thing" 
released his pals.  In about 3 trips to the farm, interspersed with other 
fun stuff, Dash would come away from even lab games because it was all 
win/win if he did, lose/lose if he persisted and the labs were downed, 
plus I ran off into the distance with whatever else he might have 
earned.  (Me running away was not a fear/safety concern for Dash.  He 
occasionally regards my absence as a virtual jackpot, being a busy 
terrier boy with many non-human type things to do.)
	And it works with other dogs, even those incapable of doing a 
down.  If he comes away, he can often go back.  If he doesn't, I'll go 
get him.  No +P, just my apppearance.   (Like Mom showing up at a cool 
party in her slippers and housecoat--suddenly, it's not fun at all.)  And 
of course, I mean it's -P.  Not answering a recall means he has no chance 
to doing whatever he thought was so fascinating.  I've even managed to do 
this to some extent with squirrels and rabbits.  No leash jerks, just denial.
	It can take a while but my notion is that if the dog learns to 
make the right choice, it won't end up  opportunistic and even 
sneaky.  Some dogs are very quick to understand the limitations of 
punishment.  Probably a few million dogs easily understand that the rules 
that apply when they're on leash, in the yard or in reach suddenly have 
no meaning when they're not.  I don't have much use for a recall when my 
dogs are on leash.  (well, I do sometimes.)  I don't need a dog who drops 
food when I'm close enough to grab it away from him.  I could just rely 
on the leash or grab the food away.  I do need my dogs to willfully come 
and refrain from gulping when there's no way I can stop them.  Showing 
them the poor choices they can make may not result in perfect results but 
I don't believe in perfect results anyway.  Then again, maybe we're not 
there yet.  Important behaviors like recalls and "don't eats" strike me 
as life long works in progress, however you're training them.
	Just some thoughts.
	Victoria Farrington