Things

I'm thinking about a lot of things lately, dog-training-wise, but not sure any of them are blog-post-worthy. For example . . . how do I get Lok to stop bolting out the door and digging his toenails into my bare feet in the process? (Note: he never leaves the house without permission, but when he gets permission he BOLTS out the door like his life depends on it.) I suspect the key lies in training an incompatible behavior, but seeing as I'm only two days into the process, I'm not quite sure what my chances of success are. The problem is, Lok is so 100% balls-to-the-wall about anything that involves playing fetch.* And the backyard almost always means playing fetch. So he bolts, then wheels around and lands in a down, staring at the door until I come outside to play. He will stay like this for hours. So I'm working on teaching him to walk down the stairs and out the door nicely and turn and face me in a sit until I release him, which is fine, but still when I release him he bolts and carries on with the rest of his routine. I think it's just his personality, and I'm fine with that, as long as he doesn't hurt himself or me.

And for example, concepts of positive reinforcement training, like variable schedules of reinforcement, and intermediate conditioned reinforcers. I don't know enough about them, and I wish I did. So I'm re-reading some Karen Pryor stuff to try to figure it out.

And for example, how do I throw a frisbee farther than 30 yards? Am I capable of throwing a frisbee farther than 30 yards? Can I use positive reinforcement training and shaping on myself to teach myself to throw a frisbee farther than 30 yards? Can I then use it to teach myself not to choke in DA? (and why it's so hard to get line spacing correct in blogger?!?)

Jun is funny. She thinks Lok is her best dog friend.

Lok begs to differ.

What?

Jun is also cute. It's a good thing too. Sometimes it's her saving grace. She did really good in obedience last night, except for dropping on her sit-stay. She did a lot better on her heeling left turns. People wonder why she gives me such rapt attention all class long. Probably has something to do with me periodically rewarding her attention all class long, and the fact that I give her my rapt attention all class long. That's what you do in a good working relationship.

*No pun intended