CM Video Links

spiritdogs

Absolutely, and as someone who has a dog that will drop food out of her mouth to get the f-r-i-s-b-e-e, I can certainly identify with the fact that a reinforcer is something the *dog* wants.   

LOL.....My Golden LOVES food, he will do anything for it, but if he sees his retrieving bumper......Food?? What food?? I can't use it for everyday training though, because just like my boy Judge's brain shuts down over food....Drake's shuts down for that bumper! We had to get a new one to work with him with made out of a different material. The orange one just shuts him down, he NEEDS it.....LOL

Shadow loves the food. I've gotten him to drop a tasty dove chick, a cotton rat (commonly misidentified as a field mouse) for treats. The mother lode is meat that I cook. Tooting my own horn but I work magic on a charcoal grill. When I was working on heel in public, I took him into Petsmart and jackpotted that day with smoked pork chop. I repeated that one more time on another day. That was last year. To this day, without treat or clicker in hand, when we walk into Petsmart, he gets into heel or Loose Leash Walk position. For him, it's about the food.

But my brother-in-law has a Blue Merle Aussie that lives to herd and cut. More than treats. You throw the ball and she herds, cuts, and stops the ball as if it were a sheep so that you can do vacc, shearing, whatever it is that you do. I discovered another talent she has when I was there. At just the right distance, you can toss the ball and she will hit it with her nose and bounce it right back at you. And she will run herself ragged to do this, making an excellent teaching aid.

SirDrakeOfTheCreek

It doesn't matter to me if the tool is food, a ball, a word, or a leaf off a nearby tree, if it gets the dogs attention and works it's great!

It matters to me and I am sure every dog that wants to be well balanced and have all of the dog's needs satisfied.  Food is a basic survival need and is meant to satisfy hunger or tingle the taste buds.  Sometimes when dog owners says they do what works, it works for the human but not really for the dog.  Whatever the motivator is, be it play or affection, the key to any training resolve is the relationship, the connection, the bond between the human and dog. 

DPU

SirDrakeOfTheCreek

It doesn't matter to me if the tool is food, a ball, a word, or a leaf off a nearby tree, if it gets the dogs attention and works it's great!

It matters to me and I am sure every dog that wants to be well balanced and have all of the dog's needs satisfied.  Food is a basic survival need and is meant to satisfy hunger or tingle the taste buds.  Sometimes when dog owners says they do what works, it works for the human but not really for the dog.  Whatever the motivator is, be it play or affection, the key to any training resolve is the relationship, the connection, the bond between the human and dog. 

I agree with what you're saying 100% but I'm not sure why you think I don't? You don't believe in food rewards? The whole point of the comment I made above was to find what motivates and works for the dog and then I make that work in my favor. I feel like I'm missing something here??

SirDrakeOfTheCreek

 The whole point of the comment I made above was to find what motivates and works for the dog and then I make that work in my favor. I feel like I'm missing something here??

My simple forumula is a dog's willingness to perform an exercise is directly correlated to the human-dog relationship.  Any and all motivators should be of a lesser value to the dog, that is what I think all dog owners should strive toward.  What I see is that humans do not understand that through their actions, motivators are influenced in intensity resulting in misplaced behavior problems such as countersurfing, obsessions, and all sorts of other anxiety related conditions.  Motivators are even created by humans and then again misplaced.

A good example of this is when I take out the dog's collars resulting in the dogs getting very excited.  Through repetition and a schedule, they know that collars means a car ride.  Is it fair to use that trigger to request behavior?  I define what the collar means to the dog and the expected outcome when it appears.  I created the motivator that puts the dog in a WANT mode.  If I deviate from the expected outcome, the motivator will increase or decrease in intensity, thus changing the natural balance within the dog.

I see nothing wrong with the CM video.  What you are seeing in that video is the start of the relationship.  CM has not established any relationship, connection, or bond with the dog.  The dog is not willing to do what CM wants because no defined language has been established.  If you watch more of CM videos you will see this rough start all the time.  But, as the relationship builds, the dog is more willing and CM is less, lets say...rough.  If I had the courage, that is how I would do it to 'red zone' dog and I suspect those that say they would do it in a different way, probably would never have such a dog in their home. 

Moderator Request,

This thread is labeled CM VIDEO LINKS Let's keep that topic here, and move OTHER training behavior content to separate threads. Thank you.