[Purley]

I am really happy I found this site. Before my son got a dog, he had read lots of books - mainly Cesar Millan I think. There is also a show on TV in Canada called At the End of My Leash. I'm not sure if he watched those too.

Through his reading, he had decided before he got the dog, that the right way to do things was not to "bribe" a dog to get it to do things. So when he first got Cooper, Cooper got no rewards. When I was giving him a piece of rollover as a reward, my granddaughter told me "My dad doesn't want you to bribe him." However over the weeks when I talked to my son, I realized that he knew the difference between a bribe - which comes before Cooper did something - and a reward - which comes after.

I have been reading the stickies at the top of the page and all the threads and I can see how lots and lots of rewards would make it SOOO much easier to train a dog.

I am really looking forward to the dog class. I went to breakfast with my son and granddaughter yesterday and I asked her to come to the class, if my son isn't working - I said he should come too. We should all obviously be on the same page. I said "Even if the ideas are new - we should all follow them because otherwise we won't know if they are going to work." At first my granddaughter whined about giving up the time - and my son pointed out that its only an hour out of the week!!

I THINK, but don't know yet, that they are going to teach reward training. There is a link to Dr Dunbar on their website. So I am really hopeful this is the beginning of a well trained Cooper.

And thanks again for all the advice on this forum.

[Cracker]

Good luck with the classes Purley! I think if they do Sirius style training (that is what Dunbar's classes were called) you may find them not only effective but a lot of fun, and who doesn't want to have fun with their dog!

[Hallie]

I think of it as motivation not really bribing. Dogs have the same attitude humans do- "what's in it for me?". It's alot easier to keep the dog's attention when there's a continuous reward and that makes it fun too!

[Purley]

I have a good example. My shih-tzu, Tyson has been in agility for about four years. He is crazy about food. I use small pieces of rollover to get him to follow my instructions. Yesterday, I decided to try it without any food. At first, he thought I had food in my hands and for the first two or three rounds he worked just fine. Then the next round he wandered off and wouldn't come when I called him - he was nosing around the table where the instructor's treats were in a bag.

Then, he went up the teeter and turned around and went back down again before it tipped. I thought maybe that was just a fluke, but he did the same thing the next time. So I put him on the leash and we did the teeter four times with treats at the end.

After that he seemed not very interested. The instructor said that some dogs will work fine without treats after a while, but some dogs, when they discover there are zero treats - can't be bothered to do it any more. So I guess its back to the treats on the teeter in future.

[KBLover]

Using food can work very well, especially if your dog is highly food motivated.

Remember to fade the treat after a while (give it less and less as a reward) once the behavior is truly consistent and learned.

It's a way of turning "what's in it for me?" into "Maybe I'll get it if I do it right this time!"

[Purley]

Yes, I had the first class last night - without the dogs. Of course, one stupid couple HAD TO bring their dog! You wonder when they can't even follow that instruction how they will manage to follow the training instructions, but still! She talked about Ian Dunbar and a couple of other people. There were a couple of women - I'll have to ask the names. She mentioned Sue Ailsby and her training seminars. I used to be quite friendly with Sue years ago. She apparently now teaches clicker training. You can google her to find videos on youtube.

I am wondering what to use for treats. Cooper had to stop getting Orijen dog food because he had diarrhea all the time. His vet said it had too much protein. I guess I can try using his own kibble to see if that works for him. I have given him small pieces of Rollover but he doesn't seem crazy about it.