It is early evening and the pups are happily chewing on their bully sticks; dessert in my household. Sometimes Rio walks around carrying her bully stick cigar style, while Deuce without fail, lays down in exactly the same spot in the living room and chews away.
Rio always finishes hers first and I take note that she always gets the bigger one since she is such an active chewer.
While they are busy, I am stretching in the living room. I notice that Rio is wandering around waiting, just waiting for Deuce to “abandon” his bully stick so that she can pounce on it and consume it. As I am watching her, she begins to “alert” bark: Deuce, there is someone, come see there is someone out there….
Deuce (who had just finished his bully stick) but was still laying down in the same spot, runs to the window facing the front of the house when I notice Rio running to where Deuce was lying previously chewing. I laugh to myself: Rio always masterminding something and Deuce falling for her tricks. This same scenario has happened before: Rio barking as IF there was someone and Deuce joining her at the window only to have Rio abandon the window in pursuit of Deuce’s half-eaten marrow bone or Kong.
Dogs are masters at flowcharts! They have an amazing ability to string antecedents to consequences. Being this, one of the main ways by which they learn.
Here is another example of Rioja figuring out the flowchart: When I have clients coming to train at C.H.A.C.O.'s HUB – also my home, both dogs are in their crates with stuffed Kongs and a chew bone. I wanted them out of the way and quiet.
Once my client is gone, I come to let them out so they can resume going in and out of the doggy door and if I am around an exploratory trip to the front area where they get to sniff to their heart’s content the scent left by my client’s dog.
When I come into my office to let them out, Rio can’t wait to get out of the crate! I ask her to exercise some self-control and lay down before I open the crate’s door. She then darts off barking her head off towards the front door wanting to be let out “i-meediia-te-ly”. More waiting at the door, before I release both of them to go investigate.
Minutes later they come back home once again disappointed that once again they just missed the dog…
On one occasion, when no clients where coming, I put them in their crates while I was hanging around the house. When it came time to let them out, Rio dashed again to the front door as if a client had been here. Wow! I thought she is getting the flowchart… a case of dog being smarter than owner … I let her out wanting her to find out that on this occasion there was no scents to trace, no missed visit to regret.
Since the whole point of having them in their crates is for them to be quiet when I am working with someone else’s dog, I began to put them in their crates when no one was coming – as if to prove to Rio that not because I ask them to go in their crates with super “goodies” does it mean a client is here.
The fact that our dog’s brains are wired to follow flowcharts with such finesse is very handy for us when teaching the dog something we want them to learn. It is all about the presentation of a consequence after the dog’s behavior.
If timed properly, literally seconds after the behavior has occurred and depending on the consequence, our dogs will learn to either continue to engage more often in that behavior or to refrain from engaging in it. An interesting fact is that just like our dogs, other vertebrates and invertebrates are capable of learning by consequences. Including ancient planaria, a type of flatworm.
Once my clients “discover” that their dog will work for consequences a new door of possibilities opens for them… as they become aware that their dog too is subjected to the laws of learning.
Rio always finishes hers first and I take note that she always gets the bigger one since she is such an active chewer.
While they are busy, I am stretching in the living room. I notice that Rio is wandering around waiting, just waiting for Deuce to “abandon” his bully stick so that she can pounce on it and consume it. As I am watching her, she begins to “alert” bark: Deuce, there is someone, come see there is someone out there….
Deuce (who had just finished his bully stick) but was still laying down in the same spot, runs to the window facing the front of the house when I notice Rio running to where Deuce was lying previously chewing. I laugh to myself: Rio always masterminding something and Deuce falling for her tricks. This same scenario has happened before: Rio barking as IF there was someone and Deuce joining her at the window only to have Rio abandon the window in pursuit of Deuce’s half-eaten marrow bone or Kong.
Dogs are masters at flowcharts! They have an amazing ability to string antecedents to consequences. Being this, one of the main ways by which they learn.
Here is another example of Rioja figuring out the flowchart: When I have clients coming to train at C.H.A.C.O.'s HUB – also my home, both dogs are in their crates with stuffed Kongs and a chew bone. I wanted them out of the way and quiet.
Once my client is gone, I come to let them out so they can resume going in and out of the doggy door and if I am around an exploratory trip to the front area where they get to sniff to their heart’s content the scent left by my client’s dog.
When I come into my office to let them out, Rio can’t wait to get out of the crate! I ask her to exercise some self-control and lay down before I open the crate’s door. She then darts off barking her head off towards the front door wanting to be let out “i-meediia-te-ly”. More waiting at the door, before I release both of them to go investigate.
Minutes later they come back home once again disappointed that once again they just missed the dog…
On one occasion, when no clients where coming, I put them in their crates while I was hanging around the house. When it came time to let them out, Rio dashed again to the front door as if a client had been here. Wow! I thought she is getting the flowchart… a case of dog being smarter than owner … I let her out wanting her to find out that on this occasion there was no scents to trace, no missed visit to regret.
Since the whole point of having them in their crates is for them to be quiet when I am working with someone else’s dog, I began to put them in their crates when no one was coming – as if to prove to Rio that not because I ask them to go in their crates with super “goodies” does it mean a client is here.
The fact that our dog’s brains are wired to follow flowcharts with such finesse is very handy for us when teaching the dog something we want them to learn. It is all about the presentation of a consequence after the dog’s behavior.
If timed properly, literally seconds after the behavior has occurred and depending on the consequence, our dogs will learn to either continue to engage more often in that behavior or to refrain from engaging in it. An interesting fact is that just like our dogs, other vertebrates and invertebrates are capable of learning by consequences. Including ancient planaria, a type of flatworm.
Once my clients “discover” that their dog will work for consequences a new door of possibilities opens for them… as they become aware that their dog too is subjected to the laws of learning.
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