My dog books say that you should 'train' a dog for ten or fifteen minutes a day.
The books lie. What they actually mean is that you should pretend to train your dog for ten or fifteen minutes a day. The evidence:
Me: Want to see Lola do a trick? She knows Sit and Dance.
My Mom: That's two tricks.
Me: No, it's not. I've been teaching them together.
My Mom: Maybe she would learn them better if you taught them separately?
Me: Oh yeah? Lola -- sit!
[Lola sits and I give her a treat.]
Me: Now you tell me how to get her off her ass so I can reward her for Sit again.
[Lola, still sitting, watches me intently. She is clearly not going to move. Having her butt on the floor means a treat. She is not going to jeopardize the possibility of more treats by doing anything other than Sit. As my mother put it, she could sit for Britain.]
Me: See? This is why I have to do two at once. Lola -- Dance!
[Lola remains sitting.]
Me: Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance!
[Lola jumps up onto her hind legs and I give her another treat.]
Me: Good girl! Dance!
[Lola sits.]
Lola is a big fan of Sit. Sitting gets her a treat, setting gets her harness on so she can go outside, sitting gets her brushed. You'd think she'd also be a fan of Dance, since I make her do it before I give her food, but apparently not. Tonight, I randomly alternated Sit and Dance commands while using Lucky Charms as treats. She chose Sit as her initial response every time.
And I couldn't help but think, "What we have here, is a failure to communicate!"
Politesse
16 years ago
1 comment:
Roksi's method of begging for food was to conspicuously sit very upright and proper-like in the hopes that you'd recognize her mastery of the skill. If you didn't acknowledge her, she would start to get up and then sit again in the hopes that you might notice.
Dr. Watson, on the other hand, cycles through his tricks in the hopes that one of them will get him some of whatever it is you're eating.
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