Other stuff...
Aug. 12th, 2007 07:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpThere is no doubt a part of me that finds it hard to believe that there is something else to life than work, or worry, but from time to time, evidence of same does surface.
Case in point: yesterday, we all had a marvelous laugh over a curious side-effect of Shiloh's having learned how to lie down.
Teaching a dog how to lie down - as taught by Mike, the PetSmart expert - consists in getting the dog to sit (which Shiloh has pretty much mastered) and then commanding the dog to lie down while placing a treat, with one's fingers wrapped around it to keep it inaccessible, just in front of the dog's forepaws. This causes the dog to (eventually) assume the proper "lie down" position.
Then, just as it says on the side of the shampoo bottle, you rinse (your fingers) and repeat. Eventually, the dog is supposed to "get" the connection between the command "lie down" and the proper position.
Yesterday, we learned that we had... perhaps... overdone the training, because now, when we command Shiloh to "sit," she assumes a sitting position and with no further prompting, continues to almost immediately lie down (for her treat). Sometimes, "sit" results in an immediate lie down.
Somewhere, we had performed an incredible amount of negative training. Somehow, though, I'm sure we'll be okay in the end.
Cheers...
Case in point: yesterday, we all had a marvelous laugh over a curious side-effect of Shiloh's having learned how to lie down.
Teaching a dog how to lie down - as taught by Mike, the PetSmart expert - consists in getting the dog to sit (which Shiloh has pretty much mastered) and then commanding the dog to lie down while placing a treat, with one's fingers wrapped around it to keep it inaccessible, just in front of the dog's forepaws. This causes the dog to (eventually) assume the proper "lie down" position.
Then, just as it says on the side of the shampoo bottle, you rinse (your fingers) and repeat. Eventually, the dog is supposed to "get" the connection between the command "lie down" and the proper position.
Yesterday, we learned that we had... perhaps... overdone the training, because now, when we command Shiloh to "sit," she assumes a sitting position and with no further prompting, continues to almost immediately lie down (for her treat). Sometimes, "sit" results in an immediate lie down.
Somewhere, we had performed an incredible amount of negative training. Somehow, though, I'm sure we'll be okay in the end.
Cheers...
