WesternStabler373

I was lucky, as this month's dog education report was interesting adequate for me to tie into this week's e-zine problem.

On page 36, sandwiched between the 'Professional Bass Tournament'a...

I was sitting in the waiting space of my neighborhood HMO with a sinus infection and occurred to pick up the current situation of Outdoor Life magazine. Really, it was the only thing to read, but that did not bother me as most hunting publications typically contain at least a single report on dog education.

I was fortunate, as this month's dog training post was exciting sufficient for me to tie into this week's e-zine situation.

On web page 36, sandwiched amongst the 'Professional Bass Tournament'article and the "His camo-painted truck and 'Kiss My Bass' bumper sticker are the only endorsements you'll ever require" advertisement, I found a story by veteran dog man, Larry Mueller.

Mueller recants meeting 82 year-old James Evans, of Naruna, Va. who owned an 11 year-old Lab-weimaraner cross that could allegedly multiply numbers!!!

Mueller states that, "Evans decided to teach [his] dog to count to 10... 'What's the first number?' One particular bark. 'What comes right after one particular?' Two barks. And so on. [His] dog counted backward, too, in addition to appropriately answering what comes before or following any quantity not exceeding ten."

As a skilled dog trainer, I hear amazing stories like this all the time. The only troubles is that upon additional investigation... they Never turn out to be accurate.

Mueller writes, "Evans began to suspect that [the] dog was reading his thoughts."

Nonetheless, any individual who has studied the dog's thoughts (and canine behavior in basic) knows that:

1.) Dogs can not read our thoughts. They read our physique language.

two.) Dogs can't do math. Particularly multiplication.

Mueller need to have come to the identical conclusion as I did, simply because he decided to review several video tapes of Evans and his dog performing their multiplication trick. But it wasn't till he actually met with Evans that he was able to ascertain how the dog was figuring out the math problems.

"All I knew for confident was that James Evans was no trickster trying to deceive the public for obtain," and that the old man had wanted to know how the dog did it, as considerably as any person.

Mueller continues, "I studied the video tape and recognized that the word, ' What's ' could be the cue to begin barking. I believed the signal to cease may be Evans withdrawing his hand from his pocket with a kibble reward. But it did not correlate, so I asked Evans if I could rig one thing to tell us the approximate area of the cue, if there was 1."

To make a lengthy story longer, Mueller discovered that when the dog could not see Evans, he stopped obtaining the answers right! Following further research, Mueller noted, "I noticed an nearly imperceptible twitch-- a reflex action like a blink occurring without having conscious believed... I asked Evans to stand motionless. He found it difficult, and [his] dog's barks in answer to his concerns [became] random." When Evans wasn't permitted to subconsciously cue the dog, the dog was no longer able to come up with the proper answers.

In sum, the dog was relying on his owner for the answers. Which, in and of itself is a quite outstanding feat, even if it is not comparable to understanding your multiplication tables!

Here's two examples that possibly apply to your daily training:

1.) A lot of owners tend to commence bending over prior to telling their dog the, "Down" command. Simply because of this, the dog begins to cue off the owner's physique language (just as Evan's dog did) and lays down anytime the owner bends more than... but not if the owner stands up straight and issues the command!

Resolution: Constantly give the command Initial, ahead of bending over and making the dog do it. This way, the dog will link the behavior with the command, rather than with your body language.

two.) Amateur handlers tend to inform their dog "Heel," and then stroll with their shoulders angled back towards their dog, so that they can appear at their dog even though they're walking.

The problem with this is that the dog reads your physique language and attempts to align himself with your shoulders, hence lagging behind the owner, rather than walking in the heel position (aligned with your left heal.)

Solution: Hold each shoulders straight forward as you walk. If you require to look at your dog (you really should)... cock your head, with out angling your shoulders. This will preserve your dog lined up appropriate alongside you.

That's all for now, people!

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