"My dog refuses to sit when we are outside on our walks – he knows what I'm asking but he's being stubborn." The truth of the matter is that dogs aren't stubborn; they don't do things out of spite or to drive us crazy. If they are failing to comply with our request, we need to look a little deeper. We need to understand how dogs learn and how we can best set them up to succeed long term.
There are four stages of learning:
- acquisition
- fluency
- generalization
- maintenance
Acquisition
This is where we teach our dogs a new behaviour by luring or shaping, then integrating a hand signal then a verbal cue and then we look around at our classmates and beam with pride that our pup is so smart!
Now keep in mind that we're in a group class and the dog has acquired this new knowledge here in this very room. You might get home and the dog has suddenly 'forgotten' how to sit.
Fluency
Fluency happens with practice – we start to see that our pup is fluent when the number of times our pup correctly performs the behaviour asked, is higher than the number of incorrect attempts. Trainers usually aim to increase the criteria when the dog is performing correctly 80% of the time.
This is the stage of learning where the average pup parent will get comfortable, greedy or lazy. We assume that our pup knows how to sit and the learning doesn't need to continue.
Generalization
This is the part of learning that we should be focused on once our pup has become fluent in a behaviour. What does it mean? It means that our pup needs to learn to perform the behaviour in different places with different distractions or stimulus that were not present when the training originally took place. This might entail training our pup to sit on hardwood, carpeting, in various rooms, in the backyard, in the lobby, on a sidewalk, in the presence of other dogs and people, when meeting a child, when a strangers asks, etc...
Maintenance
Ah, maintenance. If you've been on a diet this is the toughest part where we normally fail. The best part is that when training a dog, it's fairly easy. I suggest simply reinforcing the behaviour randomly – give a jackpot of treats for a sit a few days after you're certain your pup has generalized the behaviour and you have asked for it a few times without offering a reward for success. This will strengthen the behaviour as they will never know when the jackpot is coming and they will take that chance! (Don't we already do this with our weekly lottery ticket purchase?)
The bottom line is that we have to be thorough in our teaching, not take advantage of fully- learned behaviours, and ensure that we maintain the learning for the life of our pups. Take the time to teach your pup, help him become fluent, generalize the behaviours and then continue to maintain your end of the bargain.
So before you ask your dog if his sit is broken, or accuse them of being stubborn or upset with you, ask yourself if you've really taught him what it means. Dogs don't come pre-programmed so it's up to us to provide the highest education possible. I always tell my clients that if their dog's sit is broken, it means it was never fully built and that they haven't done their job. Time to go back to school!
* This is not just for simple behaviours like "sit" and "down" – it applies to all behaviours including walking nicely on leash, not jumping on people, roll over, shake a paw and more complex behaviour chains. Also be aware that if a dog is ignoring you, they're doing so for good reason. We'll get into that next time! *
