My training failures

    • Gold Top Dog
    Ash is always coming up and putting her head on me or rolling over on her back for me to rub her belly. She's always snuggling up to me. Am I supposed to be ignoring that?

     
    ashland, why is this behavior not considered to be an "auto check in" that you're supposed to be rewarding? she comes up to you-- reward her before she puts her head on you or snuggles by snuggling with her first.
    • Gold Top Dog
    ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

    Ash is always coming up and putting her head on me or rolling over on her back for me to rub her belly. She's always snuggling up to me. Am I supposed to be ignoring that?


    ashland, why is this behavior not considered to be an "auto check in" that you're supposed to be rewarding? she comes up to you-- reward her before she puts her head on you or snuggles by snuggling with her first.

     
    I was told that by her initiating the contact and me giving in, it's her way of demanding attention from me and me listening to her. My doing it on her terms basically. So I'm not supposed to reward that behavior. I'm supposed to ignore her unless I was the one who initiated the affection.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I agree with Mudpuppy. Shadow has "checked in" with me since I first got him. In fact, since eyes are important to him, I can stand in plain sight but if he can't see my eyes, he will come to me until he can, and then he's off to the other side of the yard again. I reward him when he comes to me so that, in the future, I can recall with the expectation that he will recall. Even in a wolf pack, various members will take turns kissing up to the leader.
     
    • Gold Top Dog
    it sounds like you're contradicting yourself-- on the one hand the trainer wants you teaching the dog to initiate contact (auto check ins), on the other hand the trainer wants you ignoring any self-initiated contact? maybe you should query your trainer a bit more.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I will ask her about this tonight. I didn't realize that I was contradicting myself. [:)] I was just doing what she said to do, but what you're saying makes sense.