When we took Devil Dog to the local dog training school, the philosophy was clear. Give the dog a treat, treat, treat every time they do what you ask them to do. Later on we were suposed to be able to wean the dogs off of the treat, treat, treat. Sometimes, after a long and difficult evening with the Devil Dog I have a little PTSD and can actually swear I hear the instructor saying "Good Dog, treat, treat, treat." in her animated goo goo baby dog voice. shudder. I pretty knew from the get go that this approach wasn't going to work for Devil Dog. Pretty much she was only going to do something if she wanted to do it and there would be no fooling her with a treat, treat, treat. Eventually the night before dog school became steak night in this house because if I brought a bag of chopped up steak and cheese to dog training school I had a slim chance of making the Devil Dog perform. I hated dog school.
Fast forward a year and a half and sure enough Devil Dog, who has the whole family wrapped around her dew claws, still expects a treat, treat, treat for doing all the routine things in life that we were supposed to be able to wean her off the treats for doing. Every night when we crate her we toss a treat in as we happily chirp "Crate time" because if we just say "Crate time" and have no treat action she will approach the crate, sniff the air for treat residue and give us the look which says "Not a chance I am going in there without my treat you big treat dispensers". So, we toss.
One of Devil Dogs other endearing traits is her unwillingness to enter the house without being bribed with a treat. When she didn't automatically come when we called her in from the yard, a well meaning friend with a well behaved dog suggested we say "Devil Dog want a treat?" and that way she would come. It worked like magic. Now the Devil Dog is old enough to ask, beg, scratch, and bark to go in or out by herself, and when she decides she wants to come back into the house she will bark or scratch and then stand at the open door until we offer up the treat, even though we haven't called her in and coming in is her own idea. Eventually she'll just relax into a sit or a lie and calmly wait us out. When she has the munchies she likes to go in and out a lot. It gets kind of old after a while so sometimes I leave the door open and try to ignore her for as long as possible. This would be fine if we lived in a temperate bug free climate, but we don't. Sometimes the icy air flowing over my naked toes is all I can take before I go berserk. Soon, we'll be trying to defend ourselves from all the mosquitoes. This is what the Devil Dog looks like as she settles down and waits for her treat treat treat.
I think animals learn what gets them a treat more quickly than anything (at least mine do). The photo of her in the door is just priceless! Thanks for the laugh
Posted by: Heather | March 28, 2006 at 03:52 PM