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Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow: Can Your Dog Wait No Matter What?

17/6/2016

5 Comments

 
Picture
A lot of people teach their dog to wait before getting fed. The dog is usually asked to sit and wait as the bowl is put on the ground. Then after a second or two, the dog is released to eat din dins. The guardian is usually standing alongside. This is what the dog may be learning: to sit and wait while the guardian stands alongside and lowers a food bowl, wait four seconds, then eat as the guardian walks away. 

Change any part of the routine a little and the dog may seem to forget what the guardian  intended wait to mean. The change could be waiting longer before releasing and the dog starts to eat before the verbal release. If one waits the same duration every time before giving a verbal release cue, the dog may be learning wait is specifically for four seconds and then he may eat. The guardian is assuming that it's the release cue the dog is using as the signal to eat. If one varies the time of waiting at each meal, the dog is more inclined to wait for some other cue to release. Another change could be that the dog can wait while someone stands next to him, but not if they walk away. This can occur if the dog is learning the pattern includes that walking away means it's OK to eat. So when one walks away before releasing, the dog is reading the physical signal that it's time to eat. (Who knows, maybe he thinks the trainer simply forgot to release!?) Pretty clever really. After all, he's always happily eating when you walk away. It could be any part of the wait routine that breaks down, even using a bone instead of a bowl; to the dog, wait may mean wait for "bowl" not bone!

The sad thing is, the reluctance to wait is often misinterpreted as a dog being wilfully disobedient, showing dominance or just plain old stupid. In fact it's usually none of these. It's more often a deficit in training and a misunderstaning between two individuals who don't speak the same language. One is trying to teach the other. Have you ever tried to communicate with someone from another country and they totally misunderstood your gestures? It can take a while to get the message across.

Teaching wait in every scenario may seem daunting and endless! The great news is that if you teach your dog a few differences (wait for longer, wait while I stand away from you, wait while I go out of sight, wait while another dog eats) they get better and quicker at generalizing what you mean each time. They get better at learning how to learn.

I enjoy training Zuri to wait before eating, at doors, at gates and before getting out of the car. I train at home and then I like to test if Zuri has understood it in a new, more demanding environment or context. Especially in more life-like set ups. I set up training sessions that replicate (or as close as possible) what might happen unexpectedly in the real world. For example, if she can wait while she is in the middle of eating something at home, I have a better chance of getting her to wait if she is eating something stinky on the beach. If she can resist bolting out of the car to greet and play with her favourite friends at the beach, there is a better chance of her waiting if a car unexpectedly drives past in the carpark as we are disembarking. If she succeeds during the test, brilliant! If not, it's not a failure. It's valuable information of what I need to work on in order to help her understand what I would like her to do in future. 

Here's a video showing how I test to see what Zuri understands wait to mean: ​https://youtu.be/NYxoO8NhKpI

5 Comments
Gerry
18/6/2016 03:27:27 am

Ah, you included using wait to interrupt an active behavior, great! So many other people miss that completely.

And everything else you pointed out is important to making this useful and meaningful. Every single dog coming here for rehab begins learning this in the very first week. A few who are dog-aggressive are simply going in too fast, and not backing away when they get scared. Wait and other control commands allow you to verbally guide the dog, having them back away and relax when scared. The behavior soon becomes self-reinforcing, allowing them to stay relaxed enough to slowly learn social skills. As this is done by trial-and-error, this allows you to gently guide the dog as they progress.

And, it all starts with commands like Wait.

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Sonya link
18/6/2016 10:53:48 pm

Thanks for the comment Gerry. Yeh, wait to interrupt an active behaviour is often overlooked as being something worthwhile to add to the teaching sessions. But very practical and I think well worth it (just like you do!)

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    Author

    Sonya Bevan is an avid dog lover with a Bachelor of Science degree in physiotherapy. This combination lead to seeking science based information on how to teach dogs and she commenced further study to complete a Diploma of Canine Behaviour Science and Technology. Dog training is both a science and an art. When based on solid principles of behavioural science,  teaching also allows creativity when applied to each unique dog. Most of all, it should be fun for both participants and a way to bond with these special animals we love so much.

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