Now that I have a good deal more control over Kody, I'm starting to ask more advanced questions. For instance, when I know Kody is probably going to see an object and bark, do I click to be sure he won't or do I let him potentially bark and then walk away from the object knowing that Kody wants to be near it. In the first, I avoid that pesky barking, but in the second I teach a valuable lesson that barking makes it take longer to get what you want which works without treats.
There are a lot of situations that dictate one or the other. For instance, if there are children present, I always click and treat to avoid barking. On the other hand if I know Kody really does want to be near the object, for instance if it's an adult, I will explain to the adult what I'm doing and opt to walk away if Kody barks. Sometimes a combo approach seems to be best. And sometimes just waiting for Kody to decide to walk back to me to find out what's next is best.
I'm also ready for some more minor challenges. For instance, Kody and I often do a quick off leash practice in a grassy private area of our walk. It's not fenced in but after I take his leash off, I run and Kody runs next to me. As he passes me and does a loop back to me, I click to get him to come back to me and treat. Then I run the other direction and do the same thing. If Kody barks, I turn around and run the other direction and only click and treat if he follows me without barking. So basically I'm teaching that staying next to me when off leash is very rewarding. I'm also teaching that barking is probably not appropriate. I really like to do this because it gives Kody a chance to run a little bit, which he doesn't get very often.
At this point I'm also considering when and if it's appropriate to bark. I'm not a bark Nazi, but the truth is, in most cases, barking will scare or bother people around us. The other thing is that once he gets started barking, Kody will tend to want to continue since it's so much a part of his nature, so I would have to be very, very careful. I'll probably ask my trainer if there are any exercises she recommends we do that involve barking being a positive thing. I guess I could teach him to speak. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.
Things are so busy, I want to meet with the trainer again, she can answer a lot of the new questions I have, but I want to get moved first. Even writing this blog entry is something I'm doing to relax from all the work I have to do.
Does Kody have a health problem that prevents him from getting appropriate exercise? Training, puzzles and games are great, but dogs do need to blow off steam and run around. I can’t imagine how difficult my dog would be if she didn’t get to RUN once or twice every single day. Actually, I have some idea, from when I picked her up from the kennel after just one week–it was not pretty.
Basically… it was a good thing we already had vacant lots, deserted empty parks, jogging, rollerblading, skateboarding, biking, friends and their huge yards, etc. when the dog park was no longer an option. I mean, your little guy wants to be out chasing rodents half the day!
It’s not health problems, it’s the behavior issues we’re working on. Kody used to bark wildly if he saw another dog or people, or a bike, or a roller blader, or a stroller, or a shopping cart, etc. While he wasn’t really dangerous, it just wasn’t fun for me or him. Given his behavior at just regular parks, dog parks are not an option at this point, although that’s the goal.
But we go on multiple long walks every day, so I think he’s doing pretty good exercise wise. I would say Kody gets more exercise than the vast majority of dogs.