Today I was lucky enough to meet a friend of Lilo's mother, who is a dog trainer. Hon – Lilo's mother's friend, in other words, works with positive reinforcement, and for me who, on the whole, is a bit anti to that whole thing, it was very interesting to have the opportunity to actually talk to one sensible human about it. As I understand it, there seem to be two camps even within the positive reinforcement group, which I find extremely interesting.
The one group stands for what I personally dislike so much; the meatball method. To constantly train your dog with different kinds “currency” (candy, toys etc) and with methods that I experience make the dog more confused than well behaved. But the taste is like the cake – shared.
The second group, which Lilo's mother's friend is in, seems to represent what I would call a more balanced training. Namely, it also includes corrections, and action when the dog acts on instinct, or simply just moping around.
This way in Covid times we met outside here, and even though it got quite cold after a while, we stood and talked for a very long time. Not only about dog training, but there was a lot of that at the end before we all nearly froze to death. I would love to talk to her more about this, because I didn't get answers to all my questions, but it was very interesting to hear her view on the matter.
One thing that reinforced by this interesting conversation is the realization that you are very much colored by where you come from, in terms of what kind of dog you have/had. Jag har till exempel inte någon större erfarenhet av rädda och/eller traumatiserade hundar, men däremot av hundar med gott självförtroende och höga tankar om sig själva, extremt hög energi, extremt hög intensitet, vilja och driv. För mig är det självklart att man inte kan närma sig de här olika hundarna på samma sätt, eller ens använda samma metoder i själva hanteringen (notera hanteringen, not träningen) av dem.
And I believe.. jag vet inte om det beror på att de olika skolorna har olika inställning till hundar och hur man för sig omkring och tillsammans med hundar, men ibland får jag uppfattningen att många inte gör skillnad på hund och hund. My personal opinion is also that many do not make any difference between the concepts “dog training” and “handling of dog”. For me, they are two completely different things – neither is better or worse than the other, but for my own part I prefer “handling of dog” in front “dog training”.
I have in all of them learned two new things today – and that alone makes the day worth a little more than many other days. Among other things, I have learned the concept “statute” – to make the dog stay in one position (for example sit) and then give a free word. I had no idea it was called that, but it's a handy word to use when talking to others about doing exactly that.
Then I have also taught me that positive reinforcement can be used to redirect one instinct to another. I took as an example the fact that Boyo likes to rush out at the leash length towards passing cars. Lilo's mother's friend said that then you train to redirect the instinct to do it, and creates a new instinct instead. I understand the idea and in many ways can buy that it is very practical. Then I'm not sure how to go about doing it for myself. I think I prefer not to force my dog to relearn an instinct, and instead bet on interrupting his focus on the wrong thing in time, before something bad happens. Or, kanske ännu mer sannolikt – något mittemellan.
To return till dagens insikt om hur man färgas av vilka hundar man haft (och är intresserad av), så är det kanske inte så jättemärkligt att jag föredrar hantering av hund framför träning. Jag gillar tuffa, skarpa hundar och tråkas ut av mjuka och snälla hundar. Jag vill ha motstånd och en kärna av stål, eftersom det är sådan jag är själv. Och en tuff, skarp hund kräver och tål mer än en mjukare hund – it's that simple.
Det är intressant, och dessutom ganska förvirrande även för mig, att de här två sätten att tänka omkring hundar är så oerhört olika, men ändå har ungefär samma mål. Tillvägagångssätten är dessutom relativt likartade. What sets them apart, I think, is the attitude to how to behave around dogs, what you think is important in the relationship between yourself and your dog, and how to behave to shape it all.
But this the conversation was clearly the highlight of the day. I have been incredibly tired today, so it was really fun to get some mental stimulation in a subject I'm very geeky about. 🙂