Category: Advanced Stuff ¤
  Author: Victoria Farrington ¤
   Title: Cue as Thrill ¤

        Wayne, YES!  That's exactly what I was trying to say. It doesn't
matter what the dog wants.  It only matters that the dog learns the way to
access what it wants is to hear the click, to wait for the cue.  I really
think this is what Karen Pryor meant in a post when she said the CUE ought
to become a real thrill in itself.
        I learned this from 2 sources--someone who trains beagles to
rabbit and something I remembered from my high school days.  The beagle
trainer uses check cords but only to teach the beagles that without his go
ahead, they don't get to chase rabbits.  He can eventually direct them in
a field full of rabbits and they've been so successful following his
direction and so unsuccessful when they did anything else that it's rare
for one to quibble.  (And people who hunt with beagles wait for years for
1 of his dogs.)  The sight of the rabbit becomes a pre-cue.  The beagle is
listening for a go-ahead or the beagle is listening for anything that
means DON'T go ahead.  (He trains both ways for people who hunt in
different areas and with different goals.) But its the cue, not the rabbit
that matters.
        And while this is really off the wall...When Dash was a young
pushy got-to-go-over-there kind of pup, I realized I was the bad guy about
80 percent of the time.  He learned to identify restraint, to bolt, to
catch me not paying attention.  When I tried to reform myself, I
remembered my friend Lee Anne.  Her parents were terrified she'd turn into
a "bad girl" so they didn't allow her to do anything.  No.  Verboten.  No
parties,no late nights, no boys.  She could escape from a small house in
the middle of the day.  SHe was an accomplished liar.  She did more than
she might have because once she escaped, she was already in trouble if she
got caught.  Now my parents were more enlightened.  They actually drove me
to parties.  I could call them for a ride home if I had a few drinks or if
my ride home had a few drinks.  They facilitated my teenaged social life
and my dad was nice enough to pick us up, oh way way down the street from
a cool party so no one knew my DAD provided my transportation.  So I led a
pretty blameless teenaged life while my friend Lee Anee became everything
her parents had feared she'd become.
        My dogs are pretty clever at getting what they want. I don't want
them to "lie" to me or see them sneaking off because sneaking off gets
them what they want while interaction with me means they DON'T get it.  So
I continually try to out think them.  Hey, come smell this!  Whoah, here's
a big hole in the ground!  I want it to be more fun, more rewarding, more
exciting to interact with me than to elude me.  Iti's exactly the same
thing as ignore me, no bird babe.  Wait for the cue and you're up to your
nose in birds.  Plain old success and failure.  But maybe more on their
terms than ours?
        Now I really will shut up because I've probably worn out my modem.

Victoria Farrington