Category: Success Stories ¤
  Author: Emily Glick ¤
   Title: Heywood ¤

I adopted my dog Heywood about 3 months ago from the local Humane
Society.   He had been left tied to a tree without food or water for at
least 10 days, maybe more.  Before that, they're not sure how he lived,
but from his behavior it was pretty clear that he lived outside.  He
didn't have a name, but if you yelled "hey" at him, he came. sometimes.
After a couple of visits with him at the kennel it suddenly occurred to
me that I should call him Heywood.  That's how I knew I was going to
adopt him.  He's a Rottweiler mix, but we're not sure what the mix is.
I've heard German Shepherd, Mastiff, Labrador,and hound.  Whatever he
is, he's a big gentle dog.  Despite his complete lack of obedience
training he was easy to live with right away.  The vet estimates that
he's almost 4 years old.

In some ways he is the perfect dog.  He doesn't chew or dig.  He hardly
barks.  He caught on to housetraining after a single mishap.  His one
flaw is his independence.  Living on his own for so long has made him
impossible to punish or reward (except with food.)  His response to all
dog toys is complete indifference and if you start jerking him around on
the leash he shuts down.  Off leash he was a terror.  He would go off
and come back when he felt like it.  What did he need me for anyway?

I enrolled him in a standard basic obedience class.  The trainer's
methods leaned more reward than punishment, but Heywood doesn't really
respond to rewards such as petting or 5 minutes with a favorite toy.  He
would also shut down in class.  After about 10 minutes he would blip out
and lie on his back staring at the ceiling.  I tried breaking the 1 hour
class up into 10 minute intervals with breaks in a quite space away from
the other dogs, but it wasn't helping.  Working with him at home was the
same thing.  

A friend suggested clicker training as a way to help get Heywood
motivated.  The first few sessions were a little discouraging.   The
introduction to clicker seems to work best with a lively dog who offers
a lot of behaviors so you can start shaping right away.  Heywood would
lie down on the floor or try to just go for the whole bag of treats
rather than earn them one by one.  Slowly, we taught him to down on
command using a hand signal rather than a command since he shuts
commands out.  I kept working with him every day and then one day he
figured it out.  "You mean if I do this thing and you click that thing I
get a treat.  I get it!" and suddenly he was a learning dynamo.

In two weeks I taught him hand signals for down, sit, stand, stay, and
come.  I started bringing the clicker to class and Heywood was like a
different dog.  Where he had been distracted and frustrated before he
was suddenly riveted on my every move waiting for the next opportunity
to earn a click.  When on a stay I only needed to show him the clicker
if he started to break.  Even outside he stays at my side as long as I
have a clicker in my hand.  

Heywood graduated from beginning obedience class last night.  We all had
to demonstrate the basic commands with our dogs.  Heywood and I worked
in total silence.  After bawling commands at their dogs for 7 weeks
folks were impressed and I gave out a lot of business cards for the
behaviorist who showed me how to use the clicker.

I've even been using the clicker to teach Heywood to play.  He gets
clicked for chewing his nylabone or playing with a rope toy.  I click
when he play bows and when he's with other dogs, he gets clicked for
playing nicely.  (He has a bit of a dominant streak and insists on
mounting every dog he meets.)

While I had first planned on stopping at just the basic commands,
Heywood's new eagerness to learn and the enjoyment I get out of teaching
him has inspired me to continue his obedience training further.  He's
doing better than I could have even expected.  I'm really glad I found
out about this.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Emily.