There’s been loads of talk recently on almost every forum and blog I visit about dominance theory, behaviourists, clicker training. I think most of it has kicked off from the Cesar Milan tour in the UK, which has brought him into the sights of people who don’t normally talk about him. I don’t much want to talk about Cesar Milan either. He doesn’t do anything for me, but I don’t watch his shows and I try to avoid the online clips. But reading all these threads and posts has got me thinking, and in some cases left me a little uncomfortable. Maybe I’m just reading it wrong, maybe I don’t understand. (That’s perfectly plausible!)

I’ve read some really passionate arguments demolishing dominance theory recently. I don’t buy dominance theory, so that’s great! A lot of it focusses on clicker training, and again, great! However — and maybe this is just the way they’re choosing to present examples – most of the clicker training, (or even just the non-dominance training), outlined by people seems to suggest that it should be approached as a clinical exercise, between trainer and dog, even when free-shaping.

That’s what makes me kind of uncomfortable. The detached way people assess their dogs, look at training as a kind of curious, scientific interaction between human and dog. Or that you should approach it as a meeting between strangers. And the one that really bothers me; if isn’t done right, you will ruin your dog forever. If you make a mistake, or punish your dog with a verbal correction, it will ultimately be the cause of your dog’s spiral into depression and perhaps death. (Ok, perhaps I exaggerate. But that’s what I was beginning to feel like!)

Allow me to establish that I don’t think my dogs are people; I know that they’re dogs, a completely different species who don’t work like we do. I can see that they do manipulate us for their own selfish needs and wants, and I don’t think my dogs feel the same way I do about … anything!

But. The but! I don’t want to own dogs as a training exercise. I stopped reading all those long threads and passionate arguments. I made a conscious decision that I don’t want to know. I like making mistakes, I like figuring it out. I don’t think my dogs suffer for it. I do think that sometimes my dogs are naughty, and it’s not because I’m a bad trainer, it’s just because they’re feeling playful and silly and don’t want to concentrate. I think sometimes they are over-exuberant or over-cautious because they’re feeling that way out, or perhaps because it’s in their personalities to approach things in such a way. Sometimes, when I’m clicker training, I’ll make a negative verbal “ah!” sound, which doesn’t appear to have turned any of my dogs into neurotic, stressed or anxious dogs (I swear Dyl was like that when we got him!)

So if I don’t comment on your blog post, or reply to your thread on whichever forum, please don’t worry. I know I usually write long, argumentative, opinion-based rants, but I am actually healthy and happy, because I’m giving this one a miss.

The short answer is no.

The long answer is … kind of.

Betsy is a Border Collie. She knows over 340 words, and when shown a toy, can go and fetch an identical toy from another room. What really blew my mind was that she could look at a picture of a toy, and then go and fetch the real thing from another room. That’s just … wow. WOW.

Ignoring the niggling thought that my dogs would eat any peice of paper I handed them, I decided this was slightly beyond our current capabilites for the time being. All our dogs can differentiate between their toys based on names (ball, cageball, NakeySnakey, Sausages, Bone, Turkey, Chicken … my dogs have a lot of toys that look like food) so that seemd a bit too easy. So we focussed on the “fetch something that looks like what I’m holding” idea.

I left a selection of toys out on the floor, including all the favourites*. I then sat in the other room with counterparts, and one dog. (Two or three dogs gets competitive. It is hilarious to see the dogs doing handbrake turns around the corners and scrabbling on the floors, but not good for them.)

Dylan was up first. He happily sniffed the toy I had. He happily wagged his tail and happily looked at me, but made no attempt to happily fetch me a different toy. He didn’t understand, complete idiot, but very happy. Labelled him “Dismal Failure” and moved on.

Kim was much better. She understood pretty quickly that she had to go and fetch something from the other room to get the toy I had, which was more than Dylan. I showed her a big coiled snake toy (because we have a pair, a big one and a little one) and she bounced off and fetched me the little one immediately. The problem arose when I showed her the little blue cage ball. She couldn’t understand that the little blue cage ball was the same kind of toy as the big red cage ball. I think this provokes further experimentation, and will try again on another day, this time with a small blue cage ball and a big purple cage ball. Perhaps colour is important? The coiled snakes are the same colour, as are the other two toys she made associations with.

Mollie looked at the toy I had, and then sprinted off to fetch a toy and take it to her bed. She now has a basket full of toys and is having a whale of a time playing with all of them at once, completely ignoring me in the other room with my one lonely toy. Mollie either doesn’t understand and should get the “Dismal Failure” sticker, or she’s actually an evil genius … right now, it could go either way.

* Tennis balls had to be removed from the equation. All the dogs just kept fetching the tennis balls and then playing by themselves with the tennis balls if I didn’t intervene. I note Betsy didn’t have any tennis balls either.

Dylan has issues. The following is guesswork, and my opinion might have changed tomorrow. I don’t know. This upsets me a lot, because Dylan is normally such a soft-hearted dog, and this isn’t the dog I know.

We walk our dogs twice a day on the same patch of woodland, which leads onto the golf course where we change our route regularly. But this 400m has to be the same as it’s the nearest of 3 access points. Dylan appears to have cultivated the view that this is part of our property, as far as I can tell – it seems to be the most likely explanation for his attitude. On the other hand, it started on a small scale after Mollie was badly bitten last summer by a pair of other dogs (they ganged up and attacked her, basically).

Anyway, problem specifics. Dylan runs towards other dogs, bouncing on the spot and barking his head off. It’s what I usually consider warning/defensive behaviour ie. back off NOW, this is MY patch — it’s what I’d expect to see the dogs doing if a strange dog ran into our garden or up our drive towards the house. Alarm barking, even? If the other dog turns around and gives him whatfor, Dyl will turn tail and run in the opposite direction, but this doesn’t happen very often. The only thing that makes me think otherwise is that it seems to be a fear-based thing (?); when I do manage to distract Dyl with toys or treats, he’s clearly very worried, constantly checking where the other dog is etc.

He is worse on the lead than off, but I can’t risk him off-lead. It only happens in this section of the woods, and with “strange” dogs; if it’s a dog he is friendly with he’s perfectly happy to greet them.

Kim does not react to this behaviour at all, either because it’s beneath her or she just doesn’t care (or maybe doesn’t find the other dog’s worth worrying about?). Mollie will back Dylan up with woo-woo barking, but there doesn’t seem to be much effort on her part. I’ve tried walking him alone (without the girls) and it doesn’t affect his behaviour.

I spent ages working on this, working on getting him to meet and greet calmly and nicely, or coming to me if he was worried. Distractions kind of worked, but not all that well. I thought we were getting somewhere, but apparently not, and I’m starting to run out of ideas. I’m going to try avoiding this area for the time being, and using a different entrance to the golf course. It will only be 50% of the time though, for various reasons, one of which being that the other feasible entrance is right next to the stream, which floods to about a ft deep after heavy rain.

Ideas, anyone?