Teaching New Tricks ...

There’s an old adage that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Well, teaching an old dog new tricks is a snap compared to teaching old and not-so-old trainers new tricks. 

If that sounds a lot like a confession from the voice of experience, it’s because it is.

I’ve been training sporting dogs for field work for more years than I care to count — and successfully, I might add, since my dogs or dogs I have trained and handled have earned more than 50 American or Canadian field titles, including some at the Master level. I’ve also “dabbled” in obedience, having put more than a dozen American or Canadian titles on my dogs all the way through Utility. My work has mainly been with retrievers and pointing breeds, along with a couple of spaniels. All were trained, more or less, using dominance-based and compulsion training techniques. 

Then along came my current dog, so “soft” that he can’t be forced to do anything, but rather must be persuaded to do everything.  

I’ll admit that his immediate predecessor had already required some significant changes in how I worked with him because he was pretty soft and couldn’t handle much in the way of corrections, but he could be coerced into doing something if being nice failed. He could, at least, tolerate a little bit of the “my way or the highway” treatment. Not so with the current dog. If anyone tried to compel him to do something, he would simply freeze up and shut down.  

Even the mildest correction would shake him, although he has gotten better about accepting correction as he matured. He was perfectly confident when he was being successful, but if he made a mistake and we held him accountable, instead of reacting like a “hard” dog and shrugging it off with an “OK, you’re upset, so what DO you want?” attitude, he reacted with “Please don’t be mad. I’m sorry. I won’t do anything until I understand exactly what you want me to do and I’m pretty sure I can do it.”   

What this meant was that virtually everything either I or his professional trainer knew about dog training became inoperative! So, if something like this happens with you and your non-traditional training (NTT) dog, what should you do?

Dogs have to learn to pick up, hold and then release objects on command if they are going to participate in gun-dog field sports, upper-level obedience, World Cynosport, rally and dock diving. While this process is known as “force-fetching,” with NTT dogs there can be very little “force” involved. 

First, don’t give up on your NTT dog’s participation in a sport just because traditional training techniques aren’t working. While there is a tendency among some to say “fuhgeddaboudit” with dogs that can’t be forced, they are not, on average, any more difficult to train than a tough dog. You just have to do things differently with them, and it takes more time to get the job done. You need to find a method that lets you give them “You’re not doing what I want you to do” feedback in a way that won’t overwhelm them or cause them to escalate their resistance to what you are asking them to do.  

You can’t “make” dogs with this temperament do something. Instead, you have to “persuade” them. This requires more patience, as convincing a dog to do something takes more time to accomplish than forcing them. When working with one of these dogs, it’s wise to always keep the lesson from Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare” in mind: Slow and steady wins the race.  

The majority of dogs want to please you and are eager to do what you want them to do. But where most “tough” dogs don’t mind some aversive training and will understand a correction for what it is, NTT dogs tend to take corrections personally, and that is particularly true if it is a direct correction from you. For this reason, a light, impersonal nick with an electronic collar is often more effective when an NTT dog needs correction. While a tough dog will more or less shake off a moderate correction like it didn’t happen, NTT dogs tend to react to a brusque rebuke or a sharp correction by becoming uncooperative, and the more you push them, the more uncooperative they become, often freezing in place and refusing to move. 

This is not to say that these dogs can’t or won’t accept correction. While it is important to know that all correction carries an element of pain, whether physical or emotional, for the dog, the key is to understand the use of pressure and apply the least amount needed to tell the dog they goofed without causing the dog to get sour. With many of these NTT dogs, the ratio of positive to negative reinforcement is often 95 percent positive, with only 5 percent negative. But NTT dogs in any breed are frequently quite talented, very intelligent and have endearing personalities. 

NTT dogs crave praise and pats when they have done their job correctly, and when they get that response, it’s pure bliss.

One thing you always need to keep in mind with these dogs: While all dogs love praise, NTT dogs require it. Where a tougher dog will quickly bounce back from a correction for a mistake, an NTT dog takes failure much more personally, and they don’t tolerate it very well. This means that they will almost always require an immediate success at something after a mistake so they can receive the praise they crave, and they usually require much more enthusiastic praise and pats for that success to restore their confidence.

With an NTT dog, much of the training consists of praise, praise, praise and reward, reward, reward. For most sporting dogs, especially those that have had the opportunity to hunt, getting a bird is the reward, just as getting to play tug or having a tennis ball thrown or getting a treat is for dogs in other sports. But the praise and pats, in large and enthusiastic amounts, always needs to be there for these “unforceable,” dogs no matter what sport they’re doing. This one thing may be the most difficult for folks whose dog training “education” has been with traditional dominance-based and compulsion training to remember. Again, if this sounds like the experience talking, it’s because it is.  

With any dog but particularly a NTT dog, it is important to not have a timetable. Let them have fun and gain confidence with whatever work you want to do with them. Also, these dogs seldom — or, perhaps more accurately, rarely — are a good fit for any sort of training “program.” So it’s important to not fall in love with any specific training program or technique. Being flexible in how you’re trying to teach these dogs to do something is a major key to succeeding with them. Often NTT dogs can be taught their lessons with very light or almost no pressure more easily than a tough dog can be taught with heavy pressure.  

NTT dogs often need more encouragement and reassurance when being asked to do something new to them than do “tough” dogs.    

This was certainly true with my NTT dog when he was taught to pick up, hold and then release objects on command, something necessary for all sporting-dog field sports, upper-level obedience, World Cynosport, rally and dock diving. While this process is known as “force-fetching,” with NTT dogs there can be very little “force” involved. Learning the three commands for this activity —“fetch,” “hold” and “leave it” — was just a matter of a LOT of repetition and, in his case, a food reward along with a lot of pats and praise when he did it correctly. He was also taught to pick up and hold a variety of objects ranging from canvas dummies to Utility articles to dummies with pheasant pelts attached and even some of his toys, just to keep this very tedious process somewhat interesting for him. 

This willingness to pick up anything, incidentally, has come in very handy when an old back injury of mine flared up, and bending over to pick something up is now just slightly less painful than a root canal without Novocaine. He has even picked my X-ACTO knife up off the floor before I could say “Leave it” after it had rolled off the desktop, and handed it to me without either of us losing a drop of blood. If a sock roll should happen to fall off the clean clothing pile while it’s being transported to the bedroom, I don’t have to stop and pick it up, because it will arrive at the dresser in the dog’s mouth usually ahead of the rest of the clothes in the pile. 

The key is to understand the use of pressure and apply the least amount needed to tell the dog they goofed without causing the dog to get sour.

When working with NTT dogs, it is extremely important to show them what is expected. This means that frequently you’ll have to be very creative to make a concept clear to the dog. When my NTT dog was learning to take hand signals, it was necessary to make this process a really fun game for him, and this was especially true during the time he was doing that part of retriever training known as “swim-by.” This particular set of lessons is nearly as tedious for the dog as force-fetching, so you have to keep it interesting and fun — something that is also necessary with aspects of obedience, rally, agility and just about any other dog sport that requires control and is tedious for the dog to learn.  

These “unforceable” dogs often become good performers as well as being quick learners. So don’t dismiss them as useless wimps suitable only for occupying the couch cushions. Instead, see their out-of-the-ordinary temperament as a trait you can use to your advantage in training. In other words, make the most of their wonderful nature and use it to achieve your goals with the dog. 

No doubt you’ll have to learn a number of “new tricks” as a trainer to be successful with one of these dogs. But the end result — a dog that is happy doing and is good at its job — is well worth the time, effort and creative thought you put into it.

The end result — a dog that is happy doing and good at its job — is well worth the time, effort and creative thought you put into it.