Kathy Sdao Seminar Notes: Gettin' off my butt and clicking

The seminar definitely helped me see something in myself, and I'm guessing that I'm not the only one out there, but I really hate change. I feed the dogs a certain way in a certain place. Potty breaks happen a certain way. Training occurs in set "training sessions". And when it comes to trying something different I'm full of excuses as to why I can't do that. They are all lame excuses of course and mostly amount to "that would be a pain and probably wouldn't make that big a difference." 

One of the things that I've read about over and over again, that I talk to customers and adopters about, and that Langley's behavioral vet told me to do is that having dogs eat their meals in puzzles and through training is a great way to give them some mental exercise and not waste an opportunity for behavioral training. So at this seminar I heard for the umpteenth time that I needed to get out of my "food in the dog bowl" rut and try something different. Here's how I have eased into the change:

An AMAZING thing that Kathy suggests is starting out by taking 50 kibbles out of your dog's food bowl and then making a goal of keeping your clicker with you and clicking and awarding behaviors you want more of throughout the day. Try to catch your dog doing great 50 times.

At first I thought there is no fricking way I can do this. But I wanted to try with Langley. I had gotten lazy and really needed to work with him more. Believe it or not, after 2 days of 50 reinforcers, I was hooked! His rapidly improving behavior during potty breaks outside and also play time inside was reinforcing me to keep at it! Then we upped it to 100 reinforcers that need to be used since 50 wasn't enough. Now not all of this is just random "catching" good behavior. A lot of it is shaping stuff we are doing around his compulsion issues outside which takes lots of clicking, and we're also doing some little mini training sessions I'm starting to throw in during "after potty break" time inside. But the reality is that in my attempt to increase his good behavior, his increasing good behavior has motivated me to increase mine. Now, 100 reinforcers isn't enough so all his kibble is being used for reinforcers during the day and the wet food that I usually mix in is being fed to him frozen in a kong. Yep. I did it. A week later and Langley is no longer eating out of a bowl.

 

It all started with the 50 kibble challenge and now in less than a week Langley is more engaged with me, he is able to leave an item he's compulsive about and look at me for reinforcement, and he's less anxious. And on top of that it's given me more time to be practicing consistent cuing and to really pay attention to myself and bettering my communication skills with him.

 

So I pass this challenge on to you. Pull those 50 kibbles out of your dog's breakfast and start paying attention to all that is great in your dog's behavior. You'll be amazed at how fast things start to change and how your perception of your dog will change in the process.