From my Front & Finish Column in the 90’s.

As promised, this month we are going to start building a two-part “down-stay” from start to finish, clicker style. For those of you who are instructors, I am going to digress a little and actually describe the initial shaping. Teaching a “down-stay” will obviously go smoother if the dog already knows the relationship between the click and the treat – if you are teaching classes or doing private appointments, you can use this exercise to make the click = treat association while shaping the behavior. This month we will take the first stages of shaping the behavior and varying the reinforcement, then finish up, next month with creating reliability and integrating the behavior into the dog’s repertoire.

Continue reading →

Alternate behavior:
All behavior is physical in nature. That is what allows you to take a step, move your eyes or lie down. The core of all behaviors – learned or instinctive, is in your DNA. That is because behavior is a physiological phenomenon, just like muscle tone, blood pressure and vision. If you have no genes for the complex components necessary for sight, (eye-balls, optic nerve, retina, etc.) and you cannot check out a hot chick from a distance. If you are an Australian Cattle Dog (ACD) puppy and your auditory nerve isn’t hooked up, you will be partially or completely deaf – a common problem with the breed. That is said to be a leftover from the infusion of Dalmatians into the creation of ACD’s. The ability to hear is dependent on the hardware – always. If I was going to study behavior, I’d start with those behaviors genetically transmitted from parent to off-spring. It’s called the phylogeny of the creature. That’s where it all starts. It’s the foundation.

Continue reading →

Working with fearful and reluctant dogs©
By Gary Wilkes Copyright 2019

There are many ways to achieve a behavior. One of the most neglected is the use of compulsion. In our modern world, compulsion is assumed to be bad. However, if you have every hustled to get across a street to avoid oncoming traffic you realize the hollow nature of that conclusion. Compulsion is present any time you must do something in order to stay safe or achieve a goal. Technically, a melting ice-cream cone compels you to eat faster. Having an appointment may cause you to shower quicker than usual. Leaving your keys inside the house may compel you to break a window or jimmy a door. In these examples the behaviors were already present. The compulsion forced them to occur in a specific way. So it is with teaching a reluctant or untrained dog to come or be handled. Continue reading →

Click-Wrong-No! Remember those?
To work with an aggressive dog, you need to create your tools. It’s just like any other dog. No tools, no control. This process may include several obstacles but it is not insoluble. Safety is your first concern. If you cannot be in the same room as the dog, you have to be creative. A safe way of creating the pairing is to have a barrier between you and the dog. I am fond of sliding glass doors. There are other ways to limit a dog’s access to your flesh, however.

The Cane Corso Experience:
I once worked with a five-year-old, intact, male Cane Corso. He had an interesting history. He had never been around anyone other than his owner, his owner’s brother and their mother. Then, the owner got a girlfriend. The dog wasn’t having any of it. Let that be a tip for you mothers who never want your little boy to have a girlfriend or parents who want to limit their daughter’s choice of boyfriends. Continue reading →

My dog, Tuggy, likes to lounge around. His preferred position is on his tummy, with his legs tucked beneath him and his head slightly elevated on some sort of pillow. Whenever possible, the “some sort of pillow” is my wife Michele, or me. Tuggy’s favorite way to lounge starts soon after either of us lies down on the bed. As soon as one of his parental units lies down, Tuggy positions his body at a 90^o
angle to the reclining human and rests his throat and chin on the person’s neck and head. This rather weighty earmuff certainly keeps our ears warm, but leaves much to be desired when we actually need to sleep. If you are wondering why we don’t put a stop to this odd way of resting, there is a simple reason – he’s so loving and cute when he assumes his position, that we just can’t bear to move him. Let’s face it, we secretly enjoy his loving nature and most often, we rub his ears and talk to him while he tries to incubate our heads. Continue reading →