I'm not jumping into the fray, but I did want to second this and thank Danefield for her posts.
Thank you! And thank you too to Yoko and Gonzo
I do not move forward unless given advice from experienced trainers, and I'm not just beating my dog. I pop him on the nose.
I’m curious as to what “experienced trainer†would advise someone to pop their RR on the nose. Or for that matter, take the end of the leash and smack the dog across the rear end.
My Chevelle used to do this exact same thing, and no sort of positive training was working. She would just get into that mode and nothing would motivate her and she wouldn't respond to me....
Until I gave her a good smack with the leash across her butt. A couple times of that, and she got the point. She hasn't done it in a long time.
He is the only dog I have to use physical correction with out of my dogs.
Hrm... Chevelle is the pit, Malyk is the Rhodie. Seems like Malyk is not the only dog you have to use physical corrections with. Unless you don’t consider a good smack with the leash across the butt a physical correction. Again...
He only pays attention to me when I pop him.
He is an almost 2 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback. He is not fearful, and is very hard headed. As I said, this is not the only scenario that I have to use physical correction to help him understand the difference between desired and undesired behaviors. He has done well with all of my methods, and I have tried using only positive reinforcement and he doesn't always get it. He understands what he is supposed to do, but not always what he is not supposed to do.
Its interesting to me how so often the dog gets blamed for why rewards based training doesn’t work.
There are a LOT of reasons why force free training might not work, ranging from poor timing, to poor understanding of that dog’s motivations, to poor control of resources, failed management, to the owner just not being 100% on board with it. I get it. Force free doesn’t always work for each dog/owner pairing. But believe me, its not the dog who’s the weakest link.
I put dogs who don’t respond to reinforcements in the same category as fairies, unicorns, and gnomes. Maybe they do exist for real, but it seems a lot more likely that they are a fabrication of someone’s imagination, created because the human has a need for them to exist, not because they really do.
Rhodesians are incredibly intelligent dogs. A dog meant to hold a lion at bay until the hunters catch up isn’t going to last too long if it doesn’t know how to use his brain.
These dogs are amazing problem solvers, determined and very smart. They don’t suffer fools gladly and you can quickly loose credibility with them if you attempt to bribe or otherwise trick them. THIS is where PR “fails†with breeds like rhodies. Its not at all that they don’t get it. Its that they’re not going to fall for an air cookie more than once. And once you loose a rhodie’s respect, good luck getting it back.
Barbara, you say you want to be a trainer yes? This board is full of very knowledgeable, experienced folks. I humbly suggest to you quit arguing that what you did “worked†and take some time to just listen, internalize and try to learn from what is being said.
There are a lot of things that “workâ€, when it comes to training animals, but if you plan on making a career of dog training, I think you ill find that “it worked†is setting the bar awfully low.