Fran on Friday

Tango! The picture of “stubborn.”

It’s easy to get frustrated in training with operant conditioning. Especially Tango. He’s a Brussels Griffon and the name defines “stubborn.” I’ve been using clicker training with him on some behaviors. It just seems to work better than using a verbal bridge on some things. It’s hard to say which behaviors the clicker will work with – just have to try it. With Tango, though, it’s not like I’ll train and after 3 sessions he’ll get a behavior. No. More like after 15 sessions it looks like he might have a clue, and then at some point after that it’s like a light bulb goes off in his head and he’ll be perfect.

As an example, we’re working on “stand” from a sit position. Since Tango is now in Rally Advanced (!), he has to learn the more advanced behaviors, and “stand” is one of them. So he’s sitting in heel position (at my left foot, facing the same way I am) and I wait for him to do something. When he stands I click and say, “Good stand!” and give him a cookie. And we do it again. That waiting for the behavior I want is excruciating sometimes. He’ll lie down, turn in a circle, sit down again. But when he gets up I click and he knows he did something good. And then it’s a matter of refining. We’re still in the excruciating stage. But I see glimmers of the behavior I want!