Category: Getting Started ¤
  Author: Victoria Farrington ¤
   Title: How to Use Negative Punishment (the soccer post) ¤

	hi Julie and welcome!
	First of all MISSY--(now don't you feel like one of the group?)
don't worry that you've started "too late" or "not early enough" with Zoe.
karen Pryor pointed out at the NH seminar that behaviors are always
changing.  They only become unchangeable when the dog is dead.  (Another
dead man rule?)  Which means one can always work to change them with an
end in sight.
	To clarify with an example, when I first saw the karen Pryor tape
in which she claims she has called terriers off game and out of fights
because of the 15 step +r approach to recalls, I thought--well, but that's
KP and not me with my skills AND she's been doing this since her puppy was
a wee one.  It WILL NOT work with my almost 3 year old dog who has
repeatedly blown off many types of +P to chase squirrels and rabbits.
(Including things over which I had no control--like hitting a barbed wire
fence full in the face.  Three times, I might add, in a single afternoon.
Obviously he didn't give a hoo-ha.)
	nonetheless, I persisted in using ONLY +R for his recalls.  I
varied the treats.  I used some -P in situations I would not otherwise
have recognized as deadringers for a real lesson, like thse nice teenaged
boys who wanted to play soccer in my big unfenced field.  I knew that Dash
that soccer fiend (and who's been begging us to get him a teenaged boy of
his own) couldn't resist joining them.  So I made them a deal.  They could
use the field as often as they liked BUT when they saw a small white dog
hurtling toward them, they had to freeze.  Sccoop up the ball and stop
moving until I appeared and ALLOWED Dash to join them.  Then they had to
play with him for a few minutes (and I'd replace all soccer balls and
kneepads he devastated!)  Oh, it worked like a charm.  Dash was in the
house when he heard the yelling and kicking of the ball.  He wailed and I
let him out the door and called, "Dash come" after the white streak.  He
didn't "hear" but when he got out there, all the players were gone to
concrete.  Poor darling.  He was heartbroken and confused, running around
and begging them to play with him.  Nope.  They smiled and looked at me
and didn't move.  I said, "Dash, here" and his sad face turned toward me,
I repeated "Dash, here" and he took a few steps, I clicked and WOW, the
boys were suddenly in motion and allowing him to play.  We did this no
more than 3 or 4 times over the next half hour.  Then we let them play
alone, although they siad they were having a good time with him.  After
about 3 more sessions, some as short as 8 behaviors follwowed by clicks
followed by a few minutes of play with them, Dash would come, down, wait,
and spin when he was 50 ft. away from me and the ball was in motion. IOW,
he learned very quickly that I and the clicker had some eeie control over
what those soccer players did and so he did what worked to get the game
going.  This held up when we were on a college campus and he started
moving toward some lacrosse players who were not, obviously, in on the
secret.  Instead of jerking him around or using any form of aversive, I
simply gave a cue he recognized from the soccer situations.  He was slow
but he did respond and then instead of letting him play lacrosse, I took
him for a fabulous jog in places he'd always been curious about.  (Yes, it
did mean I had to duck and sort of squirm around under the big porch of
the athletics building.  We found more beer cans than rodents but Dash was
satisfied that he' done his part to patrol rodent hangouts of the
universe.  And is it me, or is it true that where rodents might hang out
so too do adolescents with beer cans?)
	Anyway, I kept this up, only ever partially convinced that I could
control my crossover dog with the kind of +R KP advocated.  And guess
what?  It wasn't an overnight miracle but I now have a dog I can call off
game and away from teenaged boys who look like a lot of fun and away from
a potential dog fight.  I have never trusted a terrier like I trust this
dog.
	It can happen.  Really.  Don't kick yourself for a late start.
I'm not sure it can't really be overcome. And your dog is SOOO young.
Eleven months is not too late.  In fact, most of the dogs I've known at 11
months had rather unceremoniously dumped every scrap of everything they'd
ever known and needed to relearn everything anyway!
	Victoria Farrington