Fun with Dogs!

I have only done two instances of BAT with Jellybean at the vet clinic despite the fact that my vet would let me come in to work on it every day if I wanted to do so.

I haven’t even started the Bridge and Target training with Jellybean despite the fact that I borrowed a broken stethoscope and an extra lab coat from my vet almost two weeks ago.  My idea is to use the cue of the stethoscope to prompt the behavior of leaning her side into it and the cue of the lab coat to prompt backing her rump into the person wearing it.

One of the reasons I have been such an incredible slacker this last week is that I had my vet’s Jack Russell Terrier here doing some work with him and I wrote a huge piece for her of suggestions of what to do with him when he goes home to deal with his problem behaviors: excessive barking, digging, marking in the house, fighting. Deborah Flick, who I got to know on Twitter, has been a huge help in working on the tone and language on the mini-book I wrote for the dog owners.

The reason I was so obsessed with the piece I wrote is because the ideas, while simple (food puzzle toys, more exercise, etc.), are what I repeat to people day in and day out and I have now decided that I need to offer the evaluation of the dog and his/her environment, some basic training (this little guy was a leash puller extraordinaire meaning I couldn’t suggest a walk as exercise until I fixed that little problem) and the option for the client to give me a budget and have me order the items I think will solve these problems (this dog destroys Kongs but did great with an Everlasting Treat Ball) and I will get everything set up for them as a service with Creature Comforts.

I dropped the dog off on Monday and my vet seemed very pleased with everything and gung ho to have me set it all up but then hasn’t called me to get started and I was aghast when I learned that she had left that dog at the clinic for two days after I dropped him off.  So, I don’t know how to get my idea going, how to sell it to people and I’m feeling once again stalled on that project.

My other idea, really a fantasy probably, is to have a 4 week clicker class with no dogs.  The first three weeks would be the foundations of what clicker training is and practicing on other class members with a handout to take home on an exercise to do with your dog.  The last week everyone would bring their dog (or whatever their subject is since I guess it doesn’t have to be a dog so it could be a video they bring rather than the actual subject) and show one clicker trained behavior using the principles and techniques the learned during the class.

I think it would be more humane to learn to train dogs using people as subjects than the poor dogs personally.